A while back, I created this platform https://pollution.mt/ to raise more awareness and make air quality data more accessible to the public. This project's goal is to raise awareness so more people can take action. There is no affiliation with government entities, I developed this in my own free time, out of love for software development and our environment!
An article published today on Times of Malta is quite alarming – https://timesofmalta.com/article/allergy-specialist-air-quality-warning.1095322
I'm sharing this here to reach more people, and to hopefully open up a discussion on how I can improve this platform.
How does it work?
The data is updated on an hourly basis, and is sourced from the Environmental Resource Authority (ERA) from publicly accessible data. What this means is that data downtime on ERA’s side means that live data will not be available on Pollution.mt. ERA have 5-6 stations (one is a mobile station) around Malta and the data should be publicly accessible to all citizens. The data is also available on their website, but on Pollution.mt the goal is to make it easier to understand and to create a platform on air quality.
by lionsdontbyte
5 comments
Whats always missing in these kind of projects is more data, enough to make political pressure.
Otherwise, great job. I’d suggest you open source it so potential improvements are easier to make.
Nice thanks, but I think there are already websites about air pollution
I’d be very curious to see the values close to the airport as well.
Meanwhile, any good suggestions to limit pollutant at home? I guess air purifiers and AC should already limit a good part of the pm10/pm2.5
It would be amazing if there was a bridge that could extract data from different brands of in-home air monitors / purifiers and push it in an open format. You would then have access to a stupid amount of datapoints from Victoria to Marsaxlokk.
Kinda like how Homebridge is meant to integrate all sorts of proprietary smart devices into a common open source interface.
I for instance have a wireless Phillips air purifier so it would be awesome if I could make my PM2.5 data public. Multiple home air monitors could easily identify when people are illegally burning trash or when the f Bitmac plant in Tal-Balal decides to give all of us free cancer.
I saw most of the sensors are blocked or deactivated in certain times to make false sens of QAI.
If you really want to know what is happening i suggest creating the hardware and deploying it strategically.
Its expensive but that is the only way. Dont trust government owned hardware for free data.