On 18th October 2016 Citizens Action Brussels organised a round table discussion about the measurement of air quality in several Belgian cities.
During the event there were three project presented regarding the direct participation of citizens in air quality evaluation: “A Smart Citizen AIR Quality Meter”, a platform that serve as a node for building productive and open indicators, distributed tools, and thereafter the collective construction of the city for its own inhabitants; “Pacco-Test”, a small case with 5 testing probes that measure the quality of surface water and translate it to parameters everybody can understand and “Curieuze Neuzen”, a citizen science air quality project, tested in Antwerp.
These projects and many other initiaitves presented during the event take stock of the importance that urban citizens grant to air quality, and the immedicate effects it has in our health. Citizens, and specially patients, are the most vulnerable to dirty air, that might lead them suffer acute respiratory episodes like coughing and wheezing. Initiatives like air quality meter serve not only to imagine a future with clean air, but also to raise awareness about what is happening right now with the air we breathe.