Medical Inhalers To Track Where You Are When You Puff

Because of a collaborative effort between a high school cross country team and Chispa, an environmental advocacy group, Arizona’s Phoenix Union High School District has bought its first electric school bus. While nearly three times more expensive than a regular school bus, the school district considered the long-term sustainability, not just in terms of fuel and maintenance costs, but in regards to larger, environmental efforts as well.

Spurred by growing health concerns related to air quality, companies and communities have turned attention to creating affordable, portable air-quality sensors. This new development allows citizens to monitor air quality as it directly relates to them, whether it be on a school-ground or even in their own backyard.

The Central Valley of California has an air pollution problem, so community groups are joining forces under the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition to work together towards change. Although progress is slow, the group has been able to teach citizen science in order to collect data as well as advocate for and get a state policy in place that "directs support and resources to environmentally and economically distressed California communities."

Air pollution plagues much of Asia, but a handful of countries are putting energy and resources towards lessening the rising health concerns that come from breathing unclean air. From leveraging technology to create cheaper yet more effective air filters to government mandates, the countries are experimenting with a variety of solutions.

'Unclean' cooking - rudimentary, open-fire cooking practiced by millions of people around the world - is one of the leading causes of respiratory disease and death, especially for women, in developing countries; it is also a serious contributor to deforestation, air pollution, and continued poverty (due to the cost of fuel). But a solution has been gaining momentum in Malawi with help from the UN, in the form of clean, more efficient cookstoves that not only emit less smoke, but use less fuel and reduce the risk of burns to family members.

Surprisingly, breathing thin air at high altitudes helps some patients with asthma. Other emerging treatments include medicines that suppress the body’s immune response to allergens.

A hospital in Uganda is using a new device created by scientists that produces oxygen without the use of electricity. Since the device has been introduced, 500 children have been treated with it and the mortality for children who have faced breathing problems has been reduced drastically.

Scientists from Uganda and Australia have worked together to come up with a device that produces oxygen without the use of electricity. Although this solution was originally intended to help address the high rate of children suffering from pneumonia, it is now also relevant for those suffering from respiratory issues due to COVID-19, especially in rural areas.

Air pollution is a major health risk, and growing in severity as more of the population moves to urban (more polluted) areas. Several university friends from Germany developed a "CityTree," which filters toxic pollutants from the air with moss that can be installed around cities.

Respiratory diseases caused by air pollution now account for more premature deaths in people worldwide than malaria and HIV combined. To address increasing contamination levels, particularly in cities, scientists have developed a new kind of cement that absorbs pollutants like CO2. The special cement is being manufactured in Milan, and used around in the world in cities like Paris and Chicago.