Kenya unveils air pollution testing kit

A new technology used to measure air quality indicates that Nairobi‘s air isn’t that polluted but maps out Jogoo Road, Landhis Road and Outering Road as hotspots.

At roughly 150,000 shillings per kit, the Director of the United Nation’s Environmental Programme Achim Steiner describes the technology launched in Nairobi Monday as revolutionary, and one that could help save the seven lives lost prematurely every year due to air pollution.

The emissions from vehicles and industries mix up with the air we breathe leading to serious health problems.

“What we know today is that seven million people die worldwide every year because of air pollution, bad air, it’s neither acceptable nor is it necessary,” said Achim.

Until now, it would cost a country more than 15 million shillings to monitor air quality. But the United Nations Environmental Programme has unveiled a low cost device in Nairobi that is expected to be replicated in cities across the world.

“What we’re presenting here today is a world’s first. The box we have here will enable us to measure particle matter, basically what is in the air, what enters our lungs, what kills us, what gives us cancer and in many more locations,” added Achim.

“This kit removes the guesswork out of it; we can now measure how we are fairing.  This now makes it consistent and on a daily basis,” said Prof. Judy Wakhungu, the CS for Environment.

The World Health Organization indicates that 88% of deaths related to outdoor pollution occur in developing countries that typically lack access to data on their air quality. To see how such data is collected, we drove through some of the most congested roads in Nairobi with the air quality monitoring kit

Preliminary test results, collected by the mobile monitoring unit over the past five days, show that large parts of the city may have unsafe levels of air pollution. The most affected areas include Landhis road, which passes through the Kariokor area onto Jogoo road all the way to the Outering road junction and gets worse at the Baba Dogo area.  This preliminary study also shows South B’s Hazina estate as one of the danger zones.

“The challenge with enforcing is the evidence, so here now we have the evidence that we can show from day to day and so therefore we need to enforce and to implement,” added Wakhungu.

Achim added; “There is little we can do to change how people do things, but we can target the factories that are polluting and breaking the law but there are also solutions like boda boda which are a great asset for people to move around but they are a big polluter, there are now electric motorcycles produced in china which are sold for the same price as the two stroke engines.”

Prof. Wakhungu said that information such as this will help citizens invest in the latest and the least pollutant technologies.