Disrupting Noxious Synergies of Indoor Air Pollutants and their Impact in Childhood Health and Wellbeing, using Advanced Intelligent Multisensing and Green Interventions

ongoing

While the number and types of indoor air pollutants is rising, much is suspected but little is known about the impact of their potentially synergistic interactions, upon human health. Highly susceptible populations include children, allergy and asthma sufferers, and a low socioeconomic background, however no specific guidance is available. SynAir-G aims to reveal and quantify synergistic interactions between different pollutants affecting health, from mechanisms to real-life, focusing on the school setting. We will develop a comprehensive and responsive multipollutant monitoring system, advance environmentally friendly interventions, and disseminate the generated knowledge to relevant stakeholders in accessible and actionable formats. To achieve these objectives, SynAir-G will construct and deploy novel and improved sensors of chemical and biological (allergens, microbes) pollutants. These will be tested in a real-world setting, in participating schools of 5 countries around Europe and eventually combined into a multisensing platform. In the same setting, pollutants will be linked to their sources and two eco-friendly air-purifying devices will be assessed. Health outcome data will be obtained from children using a gamified app and prospective monitoring, respecting privacy. Highly susceptible children, such as those with allergy or asthma, will act as sentinels to increase sensitivity of the system, that will be able to provide stratified (susceptibility-specific) alerts. Explainable AI will support the near-real time analysis and response. In parallel, cell and mouse models will evaluate the mechanisms and complex dose-responses of the synergistic parameters. SynAir-G will thus provide FAIR data on air pollutants and their sources, a comprehensive and personalized user-friendly solution to monitoring indoor air quality, and proposals for possible interventions and an improved regulatory framework, robustly supporting the Zero Pollution Action Plan. SynAir-G is part of the Indoor air and health cluster.