Pupils in 4th class have taken part in a study of nitrogen dioxide levels at the front of our school, as part of a global study on air quality.

Over 160 Irish primary and secondary schools participated in the project, which is co-ordinated by the Environmental Protection Agency and An Taisce.

Two tubes were placed at the front of the school to collect nitrogen dioxide levels in October and give the school a reading of levels of the gas, which is emitted by vehicles. The tubes were kept in the staffroom fridge before the start date.

During the data collection month, pupils also monitored weather and traffic. You can see the data collection sheet below. Air moves more slowly on calm days, which means that if there are high amounts of traffic, nitrogen dioxide levels stay high in the area.

At the end of the month the tubes were sent away to a laboratory to be analysed. Slane National School had the 11th highest levels (16.58 ug/m3) of nitrogen dioxide present of all the primary schools studied. However, all the schools with higher levels were located in towns and cities with larger populations, meaning that the levels were very high in Slane for a village of it’s size.

You can read the results here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yYmqyYph5pNlqpLkuC-zjmdP6Ya-Bb17/edit#gid=879374859

You can find out more about the impact of air pollution on human health here https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/5/publichealth/publichealthdepts/env/health-effects-of-air-pollution.html