Running is great for our physical and mental health, but when you live in a big city like London you also have to think about the impact of polluted air.
Runners breathe much more heavily than pedestrians – so running through the streets of a busy city can really flood your lungs with pollutants, and the impact can be incredibly damaging.
London’s toxic air pollution levels are almost as bad as Beijing or New Delhi, and the cause of thousands of early deaths each year from lung and heart disease – but a brand new app could help to protect runners from the worst of it.
Natural energy drink brand TENZING is launching an anti-pollution ‘clean-air tracker’ with the help of King’s College London, which will enable runners to identify routes in the city with the cleanest possible air.
The aim is to help active Londoners locate cleaner air in the big smoke, and help limit the damage to the lungs and internal organs.
It’s pretty simple. The tracker syncs with GPS app STRAVA to show the live Air Quality Score of the user’s route and make polluted air visible for the first time.
Once synced with STRAVA, the Air Quality Score will automatically appear after every run, allowing people to tweak their routes; potentially cutting exposure by around 50%.
Users can also search for ‘clean’ runs in each London borough, plot and share their own running routes with the community and take on challenges to find the cleanest routes in London.
‘Every day I see people out for their lunchtime jog, running along some of the capital’s most polluted roads,’ says Andrew Grieve, researcher at King’s College London.
‘Running is great for health, but It’s even better on low pollution routes. By partnering with TENZING I hope that we can help the London running community dodge air pollution and find that clean air run.’
As part of the company’s clean air mission to improve the London running scene, TENZING has also launched the Clean Air Run Club, where casual runners can attend weekly runs in the city along the cleanest possible routes.
Air pollution is no joke for city-dwellers. Last year, London exceeded the European and UK air quality limit values, for the whole year on 18th March; just 77 days into 2019.
Hopefully, initiatives like this will make things a little easier for people who still want to get active, despite the fumes.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/23/clever-app-finds-running-routes-cleanest-air-stop-breathing-much-pollution-12108868/
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