Sensing bodies: urban exposure and asthma in Delhi, India

空气污染是一个健康、社会和环境问题。呼吸被污染的空气会导致肺部问题或使其恶化。据估计，全世界有数百万人患有哮喘。然而，很难定义什么是空气污染，或者确切地确定它对健康的影响。因此，在世界各地，有许多关于污染的研究。他们用不同的方法收集污染信息。这个项目是关于印度德里的一项空气污染研究，那里的污染程度很高，肺部问题也很严重，尤其是对年轻人来说。空气污染研究涉及一项新技术：可穿戴在身上测量污染的传感器。患有哮喘的16至18岁的年轻人将佩戴这些传感器，科学家将研究传感器的发现，以找出不同地方的空气污染是如何不同的，以及随着时间的变化。这个提议的项目包括与年轻人和空气污染研究的科学家合作。它将着眼于这项研究如何为理解暴露于空气污染对健康的影响提供新的途径。该项目将研究佩戴这些传感器是什么感觉，以及科学家如何使用它们提供的信息。为了做到这一点，我们将与年轻人交谈，并在他们佩戴传感器时与他们一起在城市里散步。我们还将采访科学家，观察他们如何进行研究以及如何处理研究结果。我们也将使用小组研讨会。这些研究将探讨佩戴这些身体穿戴传感器的哮喘年轻人如何理解、体验和促进有关空气污染和健康的科学知识。研究这项研究的参与者如何使用这些个人传感器，将提供有关接触空气的社会背景的知识，以及人们如何看待（或不看待）空气污染对健康的影响。这项研究还将提高人们对让人们参与空气污染研究的潜在社会和伦理挑战的认识。这项研究旨在通过研究个人传感器如何帮助我们更好地了解接触空气对健康的影响，以及由此可能产生的潜在风险和伦理问题，为涉及个人传感器的空气污染研究做出贡献。这将通过以下方式实现：i)在德里与患有哮喘的年轻人进行访谈，并在他们身上戴上空气污染传感器。ii)与一些患有哮喘的年轻人一起绘制地图，了解他们在城市中走动时是如何控制哮喘的。iii)研究参与科学研究的青年与从事科学研究的科学家如何进行互动和交流。iv)检查德里的研究如何用于了解世界其他城市的空气污染。v)与在研究中使用这些传感器的科学家分享对年轻人的采访结果，以考虑其社会和伦理影响。vi)在伦敦和德里向公众开放的展览中展示哮喘青年绘制的地图。该项目的研究成果将有助于制定有助于减少空气污染和改善健康的政策。目前，人们对一些人如何暴露于不同程度的空气污染中，从而面临更高的健康问题风险知之甚少。然而，我们所知道的是，有些人比其他人更容易受到空气污染的威胁。这意味着空气污染对健康的影响并不是全社会都能平等分担的。如果我们要帮助建设现在和未来保护公民健康的城市，就迫切需要了解人们如何使用城市，以及为什么有些人可能比其他人更容易受到污染的威胁。

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.