Internationalisation

Breathing easy: tackling air pollution

Air pollution is a major environmental risk factor for poor health and premature deaths across the globe. In a visit to Uganda in 2025, a team of researchers from Glasgow, Lausanne and Kampala focused on the challenge of respiratory health. 

Air pollution in Kampala can be over six times the World Health Organisation’s recommended safe limit. In response to this, an international team of researchers set out to explore effective methods for monitoring air quality and pinpointing high-risk areas within the city. 

With the support of the CIVIS Alliance, Dr Craig Anderson from the University of Glasgow and Dr Nolwenn Buhler from Lausanne visited Uganda to meet with Dr Rebecca Nantanda and her team from the Makerere Lung Institute in Kampala.

Citizen involvement is key

As part of the visit, a workshop invited individuals and organisations from across Kampala to share their experiences, including local government, academia, healthcare, public health, local environmental agencies and charities. Engaging citizens in air quality monitoring increases the data collected and raises awareness of the impact of air pollution.

"The workshop was crucial in bringing together individuals and organisations who work to improve health and air quality within Uganda. It was an opportunity to witness first-hand the challenges the country faces and to observe the fantastic work monitoring and measuring pollution."

The workshop included a productive discussion about the pollution challenges faced by Kampala. While many of these challenges are similar to those in Glasgow, others are quite different. In Uganda, a significant amount of cooking is still done over wood or charcoal, leading to substantial pollution exposure both indoors and outdoors

Monitoring the data

One of Dr Anderson’s research interest is in developing statistical methodology for health data. Statistics can be used to identify areas of high-risk then to use this data influence policies and measures to address air pollution.

A field trip was arranged to observe pollution monitoring initiatives. AirQo, a local university spin-off which builds and calibrates low-cost air pollution sensors, powered by solar panels. These are then sited across the Kampala region, and the data collected is available to the public in real time. A visit to AirQo’s sensor locations at a health centre and school helped to understand first-hand experiences using the sensors.

In another strand, the GeoHealth Institute is measuring exposure in children and also to identify key sources of pollution. Key aspects of this, are the placements of monitors in schools, and a study which involves around 1000 children having air pollution monitors attached to their school bags over a 48-hour period.

Next steps

The visit generated numerous ideas, all emphasizing a citizen-focused approach. Developing an app to collect qualitative pollution data from citizens, combined with quantitative data, could provide a comprehensive overview of city pollution levels. This app would also serve as an educational resource, accessible to citizens, helping them understand and address pollution. This project is the subject of a planned application for CIVIS seed funding in 2025.

Many outdoor professions, such as motorbike taxi drivers, street sweepers, and builders, face significant exposure to pollution. The idea is to engage these groups in data collection and also encourage them to take protective measures, like wearing masks while working.

"I am very grateful for the support of CIVIS and its work as international network bringing together researchers to tackle important global problems."

Finally, these exposures to health data would be used to explore the links between pollution and a number of common health conditions which the lung institute has to treat on a regular basis. An interesting future challenge for Dr Anderson will be to identify ways to pull the statistical data together from the treatment centres, in conjunction with the air quality estimates from the sources outlined above. This will allow the development of models which can measure the extent of the relationship between air pollution exposure and health as well as identifying the highest risk regions of the city.