Welcome to the fifteenth edition of our newsletter - just as we've hit 1000 followers! This newsletter is aimed at investors, collaborators, future hires and early adopters of our products.
With the start of the Olympics, attention has been turning to the impact of pollution, including air pollution, on athletes. Our seventh article highlighted this impact - both short term on performance and long term on health. Exposure to elevated levels of particulate matter in the run up to a race can reduce performance by 1-2%, which can easily be the difference between a podium position or no medal. Our first product AirTrack now puts athletes in control of their exposure. Please join us on our mission - Personalising Air Quality, for everyone.
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Hot off the press
- we've launched AirTrack! This has been a huge amount of work by the team. Users can now sign up for a personal dashboard showing their recent activities so they can compare their exposure levels in different places and at different times. We are testing premium features and will be making more of a splash when these are ready!
- Louise is getting familiar with appearing on podcasts. Not something she imagined doing a few months ago but a pleasant experience! We will post links to the podcasts when ready. She also pitched at an event for Lambeth Council on greening the night economy - given air pollution concentrations are typically at their highest in the evenings, this was topical
- we've been highlighted as one of 21 start ups to watch by ClimateHack. We also covered innovation in air pollution in our associated blog last night. If you enjoy this newsletter and want more, do subscribe to our blog for more updates on air pollution!
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Go with us towards clean air
- we've said goodbye to our very first intern Fallon Parrish who has done a fantastic job getting our social media up and running. Our interns have been a fantastic addition to the team and we look forward to welcoming at least one in the Autumn, if not two! Thanks to everyone who has highlighted these opportunities to us, and please shout if you know others. Computer science students would be particularly helpful!
- we are putting together a consortium bid for grant-funded work to help people with early stage dementia live independently. Air pollution can exacerbate symptoms yet is rarely considered as part of care and management of dementia. We'd love any advice from those that have put together consortia for grant bids!
- we continue to be amazed by all the support we get from far and wide. Big shout outs to Tatia Kharshiladze Georgina Hollis Amar Chauhan Josie Buck Tabitha Luxmoore-Styles Travis Bramley Damian Naylor Ashleigh Bielinski-Bradbury Sriram Rajagopal Tom Maverley Geoffrey Lloyd Simon Brown Joanna Bates Sona Ganatra Robert Timms Jordan Fletcher Gideon Hoffman Ben Brabyn David Savage Miranda Sharp Oliver Waters Michael Chang Laura Hodgkiss FutureFemHealth Helen Buchan Nikos Melachrinos Chay Pearce-Cochrane Robin Minchom Ishtar Govia Gareth Sumner Andrew Le Seelleur MBE Alexander Hirsch Erin Spurling Piera Carugno, CEng Hazel Nabarro. We hope you'll all continue with us towards clean air.
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Meet our users
Meet Kaja Milczewska, one of our early adopters! Kaja says: I like to think that there is no exercise more pure than running. What a cliché, I know. Putting on a breathable t-shirt, lacing up your shoes, setting up your watch and stepping out of the door, multiple times a week, to condition your heart, body and ease the mind. What a healthy way to live! But sometimes you can literally taste the pollution on your tongue, feeling it travel down and encumbering your already laboured lungs. It feels like perhaps the benefits of the exercise that is supposed to be good for you are overshadowed by the quality of the air you breathe. I currently work as a scientist within the field of environmental public health, therefore I think about air pollution every single day and would hope that running in my free time would provide an escape from all that. Alas, it does not!
Both air pollution and running are close to my heart. I started running a few years ago during my PhD (in air pollution forecasting, no less), and somehow it became a huge part of my life. My preference is for mountainous trails - both UK and beyond - but that is not always available to me and so I find myself pacing the polluted streets of my town a few times a week. When I randomly stumbled on the Air Aware Labs development of an air quality Strava widget through LinkedIn, I was surprised that such a tool didn't already exist and jumped at the chance to give it a go! It has been insightful to view the modelled average NO2 concentrations along my route when I finish, and how it changes depending on what time of day I run, where I run, and of course on the meteorological conditions. I am particularly excited to see a development of a more personalised dashboard, and the potential to plot a route which minimises pollution exposure. The ability to choose a "cleaner" route would be of benefit to everyone, and particularly for runners (and cyclists) who live with asthma and other respiratory conditions. Excited to see where this goes next!
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Get in touch
Please follow Air Aware Labs to stay in touch with our progress. If anything in this newsletter has piqued your interest, please send me (Louise Thomas) or William Hicks a message!
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More newsletters
Although the Venture Builder has finished, we will never forget our fellow ZINC teams. Please read and subscribe to newsletters of others in cohort 7:
- Pavandeep Rai here
- Marjo Palanee here
- Donna Egan here
- Josh Piddock here
- Guy Naor here
- Veronika Bridgman here
- Lisa Rickers here
- Natalia Baltazar here
