Communicating air pollution as a health risk - Towards a participatory approach

Following the completion of my MSc in environmental technology at Imperial College London, I started a job as an air quality consultant, working on projects involving monitoring and modelling of air quality. Through my educational background and my position as an air quality consultant, I was able to recognise the sources and magnitude of the air pollution problem in cities, as well as the effects of air pollution on human health. However, I always wondered how lay people could understand and recognise the importance of tackling the air pollution problem if they could not see it. The opening sentence of my personal statement when applying for my PhD studentship was - Air pollution, the invisible killer, needs to be unmasked! How can we do it? Finding the answer to this question is what prompted me to embark on doctoral research. From the inception of my PhD research, it was clear that in order to address the research question, I would need to embrace an interdisciplinarity approach to research, integrating natural science and social science disciplines. The adoption of interdisciplinary methods has allowed me to get a better understanding on how people are exposed to air pollution and where the risks are the greatest, whilst also furthering understanding of how people conceptualise and perceive air pollution as a risk.

In the context of air pollution, my research presents an important contribution to understand and identify methods that allow us to ensure that complex risks are accurately assessed, and subsequently communicated to lay members of the public in an effective and engaging way. Furthermore, as the development of technological solutions to improve environmental quality have become more challenging, understanding public attitudes and the acceptability of policy choices will become more important. Policy makers, therefore, require tools to assess relative levels of acceptability in order to put in place suitable and effective policies.

While I feel that the skills I gathered through my PhD have been of great benefit and my academic career is heading in the right direction, I believe that as an early career researcher, I will greatly benefit from this fellowship to further progress in my academic career path by a) producing publications to gain a track record, to establish myself as an expert in the fields of air pollution exposure science and risk communication, b) engaging in further training to enhance my data visualisation skills, so that I can present data from exposure studies in engaging and clear ways to the general public, and c) undertaking evaluation research methods training, to evaluate the impact of social interventions related to my research. In addition to publications and training, I also want to use the support from this fellowship to expand and reinforce my academic networks by attending two international conferences, one in the area of exposure science and the other one in the area of citizen science. During this fellowship I will also have the support of a commercial partner who will contribute to the successful achievement of my fellowship objectives by inviting me to take part in activities directly related to my research (e.g. workshops, seminars and meetings about public engagement strategies that aim at raising air pollution awareness). Having the opportunity to take part in such activities will allow me to view issues related to air pollution risk communication and public engagement from a different perspective which in turn will enhance my transferable skills.

Finally, towards the end of the fellowship, I will endeavour to prepare a funding proposal which will lead me to the next step in my academic career.