The second phase of Clean Air Neighborhood started on 14th September. In this phase, CAN connected with three secondary schools in Tuen Mun district, including Baptist Wing Lung Secondary School, TWGHs Mr & Mrs Kwong Sik Kwan College and Lui Cheung Kwong Lutheran College, to organize a series of educational activities related to air pollution.
In September, we organized seminars to teach students about air pollution, to invite students to assess the air quality in Tuen Mun district and to explain the potential health impacts of air pollutants. Moreover, we invited the Clean Air Committee from CCC Tam Lee Lai Fun Memorial Secondary School, as well as the young old volunteers, to share their experience and findings in the first phase.
In October, we collaborated with the three schools to organize workshops on air monitoring. We began by teaching them to make simple air monitoring devices by spreading petroleum jelly on paper plates, and place them at different spots in the school (one plate placed inside a classroom, another plate placed outdoors), in order to visualize the air particles that we breathe in and to demonstrate that we can conduct simple experiments to understand the air quality. Afterwards, we briefly introduced the air monitoring devices, including NO2 diffusion tubes and Airspot. By using Airspot, students were able to check the ambient air quality near their school in real time. With the air quality data, and other environmental characteristics (such as road traffic and land use), the students were able to choose relevant locations to install the NO2 diffusion tubes.
In order to measure the concentration of air pollutants in Tuen Mun district, students installed NO2 diffusion tubes in 30 spots on 20th of November, and conducted a three-week sampling. The installation spots included bus stops, playgrounds, school zones and major roads. We hope to find out the air pollution black spots in Tuen Mun district, and let students understand the importance of air monitoring.