Public Health Research Group, Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Allied Health Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
Environ Pollut. 2018 Oct;241:1132-1137. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2018.06.044. Epub 2018 Jun 19.
Addressing the worsening urban air quality situation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is proving increasingly difficult owing to paucity of data on air pollution levels and also, lack of local evidence on the magnitude of the associated health effects. There is therefore the urgent need to expand air quality monitoring (AQM) networks in SSA to enable the conduct of high quality epidemiologic studies to help inform policies aimed at addressing air pollution and the associated health effects. In this commentary, I explore the prospects that the proliferation of low-cost sensors in recent times holds for air pollution epidemiologic research in SSA. This commentary is timely because most SSA governments do not see investments in air pollution control that requires assembling a network of sophisticated and prohibitively expensive instrumentation for AQM as necessary for improving and protecting public health. I conclude that, in a region that is bereft of air pollution data, the growing influx of low-cost sensors represents an excellent opportunity for bridging the data gap to inform air pollution control policies and regulations for public health protection. However, it is essential that only the most promising sensor technologies that performs creditably well in the harsh environmental conditions of the region are promoted.
解决撒哈拉以南非洲（SSA）日益恶化的城市空气质量问题变得越来越困难，因为空气污染水平的数据匮乏，而且也缺乏有关相关健康影响规模的本地证据。因此，迫切需要在 SSA 扩大空气质量监测（AQM）网络，以便能够进行高质量的流行病学研究，为旨在解决空气污染和相关健康影响的政策提供信息。在这篇评论中，我探讨了近年来低成本传感器的普及对 SSA 空气污染流行病学研究的前景。这篇评论是及时的，因为大多数 SSA 政府不认为需要投资于空气污染控制，而空气污染控制需要组装一个复杂且昂贵的仪器网络来进行 AQM，这对于改善和保护公众健康是必要的。我得出的结论是，在一个缺乏空气污染数据的地区，低成本传感器的大量涌入为填补数据空白提供了一个极好的机会，以便为保护公共健康的空气污染控制政策和法规提供信息。然而，必须只推广在该地区恶劣环境条件下表现出色的最有前途的传感器技术。
