The Big Killer: Chinese Air Pollution, And What About That!

New vehicle aims to keep lower mainlanders breathing easy [as if]

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Angelina Theilmann

Metro Vancouver’s new mobile air quality monitoring vehicle (Credit: Angelina Theilmann)

Metro Vancouver has a shiny new vehicle to monitor [Who's] air quality in your neighbourhood.

The new vehicle is named MAMU, short for “Mobile Air Monitoring Unit.” It cost $282,000, and replaces the older twenty-five year old MAMU.

“The new scientific instruments in the new MAMU will help air quality experts better assess real and perceived air quality problems,” said Heather Deal, Chair of Metro Vancouver’s Environment and Parks Committee.

Instruments on the outside of the vehicle can monitor things like wind direction, air temperature, and measure particulates and gases in the air. Technology on the inside processes this information, and simultaneously relays results back to computers at the Metro Vancouver office.

Ken Reid, Metro Vancouver’s superintendent of environmental monitoring explained that a mobile unit is unique because, as well as monitoring air quality, it can move around and monitor extremely local situations.

“The great thing about the new mobile air monitoring unit means we can go into neighbourhoods,” said Reid. “We can investigate the local air quality issues that might be associated with an industry or an emergency situation [like] a fire so we can get well positioned to clarify what the air quality impacts are.”

Reid explained Metro Vancouver has one of the densest network of stationary air quality monitoring stations in the North America, but MAMU is used to assess air quality where the stations aren’t. One area MAMU will be useful is what Reid calls roadside monitoring.

“We know that a large segment of the population lives very close to major roadways in Metro Vancouver … a unit like this could be parked near a major roadway and give us a really good instance of what people are being exposed to.”

Other local issues MAMU can assess include the presence of woodsmoke or diesel emissions in residential neighbourhoods.

Reid says he would like to take the mobile unit to public events in the future to allow the public a chance to better understand their air quality.

Before being deployed for the first time, MAMU will undergo further testing.

And what about the real problem, Chinese air pollution....H E L L O!