A new research project commenced in 2018 titled, Assessment of children’s exposure to air pollution in Fiji, its drivers and the burden of disease attributable to it, funded by the Centre for Air pollution, energy and health Research (CAR) Seed Funding Project. A batch of low-cost air-quality monitors have been deployed by Dr Tom Cole-Hunter and Professor Lidia Morawska with colleagues at Fiji National University and WHO’s Western-Pacific Regional Office in Suva, Fiji. These monitors, as a network piloted for the first time in the Pacific Island Countries, are recording two key pollutants related to smoke from biomass and fossil-fuel combustion (carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter). Information on these pollutants will provide a clear picture as to how clean or not the air there is, and how that changes with a transition to clean energy, e.g., municipal electricity sourced from solar panels (as is potentially viable) rather than diesel generators (as is currently common). This work was shared by Professor Morawska with attendees at the WHO’s first Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health, held at WHO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, at the end of 2018. For more information on the project.
