Two advanced air quality monitors have been launched at Mama Lucy Hospital in Nairobi aimed at addressing the city’s growing air pollution problem. These monitors will track harmful pollutants, including black carbon and particulate matter (PM 2.5), which can penetrate the lungs and bloodstream, contributing to respiratory diseases.
Speaking during the launch, Eng. Festus Ng’eno, Principal Secretary for Environment, Climate Change, and Forestry, highlighted the importance of the initiative.
“Nairobi is a rapidly growing city with significant economic opportunities, but air pollution remains one of our greatest environmental challenges,” said Ng’eno.
“These monitors will provide reliable data, helping us identify pollution hotspots and take action to reduce harmful emissions.”
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), ambient air pollution was estimated to cause close to 4000,000 premature deaths in Africa alone in 2019, while indoor air pollution caused more than one million premature deaths.
The launch of these monitors is also aimed at addressing the root cause of these rising cases of upper respiratory infections and respiratory-related cancers in the city.
Health Concerns at the Hospital
Dr. Martin Wafula, Chief Executive Officer of Mama Lucy Hospital, explained how the monitors will transform how the hospital addresses respiratory issues.
“We see a lot of patients with breathing difficulties, but we’ve been treating them individually without addressing the root cause. These monitors will allow us to map where patients come from and address pollution-related health problems with community-based interventions,” said Dr. Wafula.
He noted that 60% of the hospital’s patients present with breathing issues, while 80% of children suffer from upper respiratory infections. The hospital has also seen an increase in respiratory cancers and premature births. Dr. Wafula linked some of these cases to poor air quality in densely populated and slum areas, particularly around dumpsites.
“On average, we deliver around 70 mothers a day, and at least 20 are premature births. We’ve observed that mothers exposed to poor air quality are more likely to deliver early,” said Wafula.
The air monitors will help correlate such health problems with specific pollutants and allow for targeted public health interventions.
“We are seeing on average 3,000 patients per day out of which 60 per cent of those people are presenting with breathing issues. 80 per cent of the children we are seeing are represented with upper respiratory distress,” adds Wafula.
Dr. George Mwaniki, World Resource Institute (WRI) Africa said that air quality in Nairobi has deteriorated significantly over the past decades, with pollution levels now four times higher than WHO recommendations. These monitors will help identify pollution sources and guide public health interventions.
Why Mama Lucy Hospital
The hospital was chosen due to its role as a critical healthcare center for Nairobi’s lower-income population, which experiences high rates of respiratory illness. Additionally, Mama Lucy Hospital is one of the few public hospitals with a certified incinerator for medical waste, making it a strategic location for the air quality monitoring initiative.
“The initiative was introduced at Mama Lucy Hospital, a critical healthcare center for the city’s lower-income population. The hospital deals with a high number of respiratory cases, particularly among children and pregnant women, making it an ideal location for air quality monitoring,” said Dr Mwaniki.
Also, the monitors were installed at Mama Lucy Hospital in Nairobi because of its certified incinerator and its significant number of respiratory-related ailments they receive per day.
The equipment installed includes a PM 2.5 monitor, which measures dangerous particles in the air, and a five-wavelength black carbon monitor that identifies pollution sources, such as vehicle emissions and wood burning. The data gathered will inform public health strategies by linking pollution hotspots to rising health concerns, enabling targeted community interventions.
“We are looking at black carbon and PM 2.5 that you can breathe and they go to the lungs without any filter and they can go straight from the lungs to the bloodstream. Those are the things we are most concerned about, ” said Dr Mwaniki.
“For all the health impacts from air pollution, around 70% come from exposure to those small particles; the other 30 per cent is from the gas face and the bigger particles.”
Further Dr Mwaniki adds that the equipment they launched will measure that breathable PM 2.5.
“We are also looking at the entire weather station to help us do an analysis where these particles are coming from and who is generating them because some of these particles are made of very dangerous chemicals,” adds Mwaniki.
The equipment will also help in analyzing the chemical composition of the particles and what drives most of the ailments we see in the city according to Dr Mwaniki.
The hospital’s new technology will help trace the origins of health problems tied to air pollution. By mapping where patients with respiratory diseases are coming from, the hospital will be able to identify environmental causes and work with public health officials to intervene in affected communities.
Nairobi is expected to install 37 more air quality monitors across the city in the coming months. This initiative is part of a larger effort to enforce air quality regulations and reduce the health impacts of pollution, especially from vehicle emissions, which account for 40% of the city’s air pollution.
The launch was made possible through partnerships with the World Resources Institute, Clean Air Catalyst, USAID, AirQo, the Ministry of Environment, NEMA, and other collaborators, with support totaling KSh 20.4 million ($158,000) from USAID.
