Penrith’s air quality is being monitored to help the district council identify pollution hotspots in the town.
The two new mobile continuous air quality monitors show indicative levels of a number of pollutants including nitrogen oxides, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter.
The small monitors are mounted on lampposts and can be moved.
A council spokesman said: “The real-time reading will capture spikes in pollutant concentration: an important part in identifying, tackling and reducing levels within the district.
“The council hopes to display this data on its website, for everyone to see.”
Previous monitoring within the Eden district has been undertaken for nitrogen dioxide via the use of monthly diffusion tubes providing a monthly and annual average.
The new equipment, the council said, will also increase the scope of air quality data gathered by Eden with the inclusion of monitoring for very tiny airborne particles known to be harmful to human health.
Judith Derbyshire, housing and health portfolio holder said: “The new real time data will give us a better understanding of peak rates and patterns of all the main health-based air pollutants, and equipment will provide data that can be used to inform future initiatives to reduce air pollution and its risk to human health.”
The council monitors levels of pollutants – the most common kind is nitrogen dioxide, which comes from the exhausts of cars and lorries, power stations and other types of combustion.
