A new resource for air state monitoring appeared in Ukraine

A new information resource CleanAir.org.ua has been launched in Ukraine. The resource's topic is the state of air pollution.

How polluted is the air in my city? What can I do to protect my health? What are the main "hot spots" and plants that pollute our air? Residents can now find answers to these questions on the recently launched CleanAir.org.ua web portal, which contains information on industrial pollution in Ukraine and activism.

The key element of the website is the presentation of data from EcoCity stations, an expanding network of public air monitoring stations installed in dozens of cities in industrial areas of Ukraine. Over 250 stations send data to the Internet every minute.

CleanAir.org.ua is not just the epicenter of data on the current state of air quality in Ukraine and events organized by local civic initiatives. It is a platform that offers comprehensive information for all active residents of Ukrainian cities suffering from air pollution.

"The portal provides an opportunity to learn more about how polluted air affects people's health and what steps we can take to improve the situation in our cities. It contains scientific publications, research, and analysis," explains Maksym Soroka, a technical expert of the Clean Air for Ukraine project.

According to the European Society of Cardiology, air pollution in Ukraine can cause up to 83,960 excessive deaths each year.

"Detailed knowledge about pollution is the first step to preserving our health. Unfortunately, state monitoring data is not publicly available, and in some cities, monitoring does not exist at all. We believe that reliable information will help residents demand the necessary measures from responsible government agencies and politicians," said Pavlina Filippovova, a coordinator of the Clean Air for Ukraine project of the Czech NGO Arnica.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic subsidized the development of the portal under the Transition Program and the National Endowment for Democracy (USA).

How does it work?

Visitors of the CleanAir portal can find information on public initiatives to fight air pollution in Ukrainian cities such as Kryvyi Rih, Mariupol, Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, Kramatorsk, and Nikopol. In addition, there are also instructions for purchasing a public air monitoring station and installing it.

"Our monitoring stations are an affordable solution for those interested in the level of air pollution in their city. The more stations installed, the more accurate information we get. The advantage of EcoCity stations over other similar civil science systems is that they control more than just particulate matter, but also other substances dangerous to human health, such as nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, ammonia, ground-level ozone, and volatile organic compounds," Soroka adds.