Quality of the air: hope or despair?
Publication Date/Time
2017-10-25T09:00:00+00:00
Open Data on the air we breathe
Looking for some fresh air? This might be a challenge, depending on
your city of residence. Multiple government organisations publish Open
Data on the air quality and they do so for a very good reason. The
amount of for instance inhalable coarse particles can cause health
problems. That is why providing information on air (quality) -
understood as common good - is important, as only so environmental
problems such as air pollution can be addressed in a suitable manner.

How to end up with reliable Open Data on air quality? It all starts
with proper measurement stations. Take a look at for instance this
French dataset
[https://www.europeandataportal.eu/data/en/dataset/place-de-la-nation-points-de-mesure-des-capteurs-de-qualite-dair]
and the locations of air sensors. Moreover, there are different
examples of data measuring air quality across Europe and the globe.
Curious about levels of Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) or 2.5 micrometres fine
particles (known as PM2.5)? Review these Swiss
[https://www.europeandataportal.eu/data/en/dataset/https-opendata-swiss-dataset-5d3791a0-fb3b-4bc0-b106-268fbe64b7c5]
and Italian
[https://www.europeandataportal.eu/data/en/dataset/monitoraggio-mensile-qualit-dellaria]
datasets to find out more.

Furthermore, and as a response to the decrease in air quality that
many cities face, many governmental bodies have started implementing
measures to tackle this negative development. These actions are by no
means superfluous. Example data from the United Kingdom
[https://www.europeandataportal.eu/data/en/dataset/understanding-health-impacts-of-air-pollution-in-london]
for instance show that air pollution relates to severe health effects.
In addition, many engaged citizens have started taking measures to
raise awareness around the air pollution problem, such as the uRAD
Monitor [https://www.uradmonitor.com/] - a use case featured on the
European Data Portal
[https://www.europeandataportal.eu/en/using-data/use-cases?title=uRAD&body_value=uRAD&field_country_value=All&field_region_value=All&field_sector_value=All&field_type_of_use_case_value=All].

Still breathing and interested in other health related topics? Want to
see more use cases in the environmental field? Check out our datasets
in the Health category of the European Data Portal
[https://www.europeandataportal.eu/data/en/group/health] and the
various Use Cases published in our designated section.
[https://www.europeandataportal.eu/en/using-data/use-cases]
