Environmental Monitoring for Health and Wellness

Abstract

Our environment plays a pivotal daily role in our health and well-being. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the noise levels we're exposed to, and the weather we experience, all directly affect us in terms of our quality of life, our life expectancy, and the prevalence of certain diseases or other aspects of our personal health. Poor air quality, for example, has been linked to premature death, cancer, and respiratory conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Second-hand smoke from cigarettes has been correlated with lung cancers and other respiratory conditions among non-smokers (Barnoya et al., 2005, Sasco et al., 2004). Pesticide contamination in the environment has been linked to a drop in male fertility (Bretveld et al., 2007, Balabanic et al., 2011). Global industrialization, urbanization, transport systems, agriculture, and energy production—all driven by population growth— are putting an enormous strain on our environment. If current human societal behavior continues unchecked, we will need to consume more resources to drive our energy-hungry lifestyles, resulting in increased levels of pollution— including greenhouse gases, as shown in Figure 11-1. The Global Burden of Disease study estimates that 24 percent of the world's burden of disease can be attributed to environmental factors (IHME, 2013). The report attributes 3.2 million adult deaths globally to ambient air pollution in 2010, up from 2.9 million in 1990. In addition, 3.5 million adult deaths were associated with household air pollution exposure, such as indoor smoke from solid fuels. The report points out that the total number of deaths related to air pollution (6.9 million) exceeded those attributed to cigarette smoking (6.3 million). However, when dealing with such estimates, the contribution of modifiable risks factors also needs to be considered. For example, how many of the individuals were cigarette smokers or had occupations that increased their risks, as opposed to individuals who were unavoidably exposed to air pollution? Personal sensing in the future may offer quantifiable insights at an individual level into the amount of avoidable and unavoidable air pollution we are exposed to. Chapter 11 ■ environmental monitoring for health and Wellness 250 Environmental monitoring focuses primarily on the identification and measurement of pollutants in the form of chemical, biological, microbiological, and radiological containments in water, soil, and air. In addition, ambient environmental monitoring targets variables such as temperature, humidity, and noise levels. While monitoring has been used for many decades, approaches to date have relied mainly on in-situ representative sampling (grab sampling), followed by laboratory analysis of samples. While highly accurate, this is slow, laborious, intensive, and not scalable. From a regulatory perspective, there has been significant interest in the use of sensing technologies, which can extend the capabilities of the laboratory to sites of interest. Some successes have been achieved, particularly with air-quality monitoring. However, these sensors cost tens of thousands of dollars, which limits their scalability and restricts their use to a small number of static sites within a given area. Because of the need for improved, affordable and scalable sensing, there is growing interest in the use of lower-cost wireless sensors for environmental monitoring applications, both in the regulatory and non-regulatory domains. Moreover, individuals who have become increasingly aware of their ambient environment are interested in monitoring the quality of that environment. This is driven in part by extending the concept of the quantified self to embrace environmental influences. The ubiquitous nature of smartphones and tablets is also enabling the development of early-stage crowdsourced sensing capabilities in which citizens become mobile sensors of their own environment. Figure 11-1. Growth in global population and rise in carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions due to energy consumption