Local climate change projects often struggle to win support, even though 70% of people agree with the UK’s 2050 net zero emissions target. The STRIAD:AIR AI solution created by Trilateral Research uses innovative methods to turn raw air pollution and health data into motivating messages, enabling climate action by highlighting the health and financial costs of air pollution in hyperlocal areas. The data and messaging are then showcased at community events and in schools.
Using STRIAD:AIR, if every council in Ireland reduced air pollution by 20%, more than 360 lives would be saved per year, reducing costs to the Health Service Executive (HSE) by €18 million annually.
Trilateral Research builds ethical AI solutions to tackle complex social problems like identifying children at risk of exploitation, mapping trends in modern slavery, and combatting climate change. The flagship climate change product, STRIAD:AIR, provides real-time information for local communities to build support for climate action initiatives. The solution translates data into meaningful effects of air pollution on people’s health and wellbeing – cases of asthma, diabetes, stroke, and many more. This clarity fosters local support for air quality initiatives that improve and protect environmental health, while promoting sustainable innovation.
The need for such a tool
Since 2022, Trilateral has partnered with Meath County Council to build a cutting-edge data enabling AI solution that provides meaningful information about air quality on individual roads near schools and homes to support climate action and improve public health.
As air quality declines, the risk of issues like respiratory disease increases. However, many do not realise that risk of conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and stroke also increase. At the same time, while 70% of people in the UK agree with the 2050 UK net zero emissions target, local projects often struggle to win sufficient support and can be highly controversial.
Building support for action on air quality is difficult. Working with the council and with people in Meath, Trilateral Research demonstrated the real impact of poor air quality in local areas, driving people to take action to protect their communities.
The project was launched in Trim, a community of 9,000 people, by installing low-cost air quality sensors to measure pollution in the high street and outside local schools and healthcare facilities. Traffic sensors were added at each site to develop street-level data on air quality and traffic in the town.
The Trilateral Research team leveraged cutting-edge scientific evidence, best-in-class epidemiological techniques and hyperlocal population data to create a predictive model of the effects of air pollution on health in the town. In Trim specifically, it linked real-time air pollution data to the number of cases of disease caused and cost to the HSE of treating air pollution-related illness.
In Trim alone, the project has shown that local air pollution levels are likely responsible for six cases of asthma, four cases of diabetes, and three strokes annually. The total annual cost to the Irish healthcare system of these effects is more than €150,000. To make this data publicly available to Trim residents and the public, the data team at Trilateral Research built a bespoke platform that showcased the data, the predictive results, and the data portal at community events and in schools to build awareness of the health effects of air pollution.
Councils can demonstrate to their residents how air pollution affects their health – confirming that change is not only possible, but necessary. This information can be leveraged by councils to win public support for various local projects by measuring and publicising lives saved. They can use the platform to lobby central government for climate action projects by demonstrating likely returns on investment against compounding healthcare costs, justifying the initial outlay for sustainability projects. STRIAD:AIR has shown that if every council in Ireland reduced air pollution by 20%, more than 360 lives would be saved per year, reducing costs to the HSE by €18 million annually.
Understanding the consequences of air pollution means understanding the costs of illness to the healthcare system. STRIAD:AIR’s healthcare cost shows the price the HSE pays due to air pollution, combined with scenario planning and traffic modelling to show how local action will save money and save lives.
The impact of even a single day of air pollution on health can be understood. That means effective and impactful messaging can be created to show the impact of wood burning, a significant and growing risk to health (and now the primary cause of particulate air pollution in the UK). This model shows the burden of air pollution in terms of lost school and workdays, productivity, and acute health needs like asthma attacks. This will give councils and other public bodies the data to understand the value of investment in air quality.
Building on the successes of STRIAD:AIR, AI models are being expanded to include new outcomes including short-term health effects of high pollution, productivity losses, and impact on school attendance. The messages and models road-tested by Trilateral Research in Meath’s schools are now being used in London, New York, and further afield.
