Sensing bodies: urban exposure and asthma in Delhi, India

Air pollution is a problem for health, society and the environment. Breathing polluted air can cause lung problems or make them worse. It is estimated that millions of people worldwide suffer from asthma. Yet, it is difficult to define what air pollution is, or identify exactly what its effects on health are. Across the world, there therefore many studies addressing pollution. They use different ways of trying to gather information about pollution. This project is about an air pollution study in Delhi, India, where there are high levels of pollution, and high levels of lung problems, particularly for young people. The air pollution study involves a new technology: sensors which can be worn on the body to measure pollution. Young people aged between 16 and 18 who have asthma will be wearing these sensors, and scientists will be studying the findings from the sensors to find out how air pollution is different in different places and changes over time. This proposed project involves working with the young people and the scientists from the air pollution study. It will look at how this research is making new ways of understanding the health effects of exposure to air pollution. The project will look at what it is like to wear these sensors, and how scientists use the information they provide. To do this, we will talk to the young people, and walk around the city with them as they are wearing the sensors. We will also interview the scientists, and observe how they do the research and what they do with the results. We will also use group workshops. These will explore how young people with asthma who wear these bodily-worn sensors understand, experience and contribute to scientific knowledge about air pollution and health. Studying how participants in this research use these personal sensors will provide knowledge about the social contexts of exposure and the way in which air pollution is seen (or not) as affecting health. The research will also raise awareness of the potential societal and ethical challenges of involving people in research about air pollution. The research aims to contribute to air pollution research involving personal sensors by examining how these may help us better understand the health effects of exposure, but also the potential risks and ethical problems that may arise as a result. This will be achieved by: i) Conducting interviews and walking interviews around Delhi with young people with asthma wearing the air pollution sensors on their body. ii) Drawing maps with some of the young people with asthma to understand how they manage their asthma as they move around the city. iii) To study how the young adults participating in the scientific research and scientists conducting the research interact and communicate. iv) Examine how the research in Delhi can be used to understand air pollution in other cities around the world. v) Share the findings from the interviews with the young adults with the scientists using these sensors in their research to consider their social and ethical implications. vi) Present the drawn maps by the young adults with asthma in exhibitions open to the public in London and Delhi. The research findings of this project will contribute to the development of policies that can help reduce exposure to air pollution and improve health. There is currently little knowledge about the ways in which some people are exposed to different levels of air pollution and therefore at higher risk of health problems. What is known, however, is that some people are more at risk to air pollution than others. This means the health effects of air pollution are not equally shared by society. Generating knowledge about how people use cities and why some people may be more at risk to pollution than others is urgently needed if we are going to help build cities that protect their citizens' health now and in the future.

This proposed research will have economic and social benefits by addressing three major themes in contemporary environmental health research and policy: (1) Increasing the effectiveness of public services and policy in improving air quality; (2) Improve public understanding of science by generating publicly relevant scientific evidence; (3) Develop effective interdisciplinary and academic-non-academic partnerships and thereby knowledge exchange to improve the economic competitiveness of the UK. How this latter point is achieved in practice is valuable for future research and pragmatic interventions on this key topic of concern. Improving urban air quality cannot be resolved solely through technocratic solutions. A socially and contextually relevant understanding is required if we are going to make feasible changes to environmental health and make ethically informed, responsible changes to people's lives. This project will contribute to these areas by targeting three different beneficiaries: (1) public services and policy makers;(2) young adults in Delhi and London; the general public; educational and health practitioners. (3) Academic and non-academic partnerships in UK and India; public and policy engagement in academic research. In terms of the first beneficiary (1), the research findings will have direct relevance to national and municipal level policy on air pollution. By providing specific findings about air pollution at the individual and community level, the research can inform policy in the study country and therefore develop strategies to effectively respond to these needs. Mitigation strategies will be creatively explored stakeholder engagement workshops that bring government officials, local authorities and public health practitioners into dialogue. To ensure the research has societal benefit, at the scale of individual and community health, (2) creative capacity building activities will be carried out through the project's duration. Impact will be achieved through methods of co-production, allowing young adults to participate in the social science study to feed back into the research process and shape its findings. Understanding how scientific data are made and personal sensors work will also potentially have longer-term benefits; providing young people with the necessary skills and resources as urban citizens to hold governments to account. The outputs generated will also be displayed to the public in a series of public-facing installations to increase audience reach. The research will also be accessible via the project website and various social media outlets managed by the PI. Finally, (3) the inherently collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of "sensing bodies" anticipates the building of longer-term partnerships between academic, non-academic and artistic institutions, organisations and individuals in the UK and India. How to achieve effective partnerships will also be explored through evaluation of the various impact activities. Evaluating impact activities will be valuable to the translation of future research on this key topic and other intractable public health challenges. This will include the use of questionnaires to generate quantitative and qualitative data on the effectiveness of impact activities, as well as more reflective documenting of based on the experiences of those leading the events. This evaluative work will ensure the research progresses in a way that further develops the methodological design of the project and therefore it's future impact potential. The impact evaluation will be disseminated in presentations and publications of the research because impact activities are taking place throughout the research process, rather than as an endpoint. Harnessing an already existing network of interdisciplinary researchers means the project's outputs will be communicated to relevant science-policy stakeholders, as well as practitioners working on the front-line of urban public health.