Something’s in the air, and 17 Dublin Scout Groups are helping to find out what!

Scouting Ireland has teamed up with An Taisce through ‘See What You Breathe’, a project exploring air pollution. Participating Groups have put small sampling tubes in place and shared photos and location details with the project team. Those little tubes are now collecting clues about the air around them.

Small tubes at work

The tubes measure nitrogen dioxide, often shortened to NO₂. It’s a gas that pollutes the air and is linked to motorised traffic.

Inside each tube is a material that absorbs NO₂ from the surrounding air. The tubes stay outside for four weeks, then go to a laboratory for testing. The results show the average level of NO₂ at each location during that time. As the tubes measure one type of pollution, they give us one part of the wider air quality picture.

Scouting skills in action

This is citizen science, which means people helping to gather information for scientific research.

For Scouts, it’s a chance to put familiar skills to work: observing our surroundings, working together and asking questions. It also connects science with places we know, from the roads we travel along to the areas around our meeting places.

While the tubes do their job, there is plenty to wonder about:

Will a busy road have a different result from a quieter street?
How might wind and weather affect the readings?
What could help reduce traffic pollution near our meeting place?

Groups can make their predictions now and come back to them when the results arrive. Were there any surprises? What would they like to investigate next?

Part of a bigger picture

The wider project brings together organisations across Europe, with sampling taking place over the same four-week period. An Taisce’s work focuses on Dublin in the first year and Cork in the second. Sharing the findings will help communities learn from one another and talk about cleaner air.

Looking ahead

At the end of November, participating Groups will take down their tubes so the samples can be tested. We look forward to sharing an update when the results are available and hearing what our Scout air detectives discover.