INHALE is the Initiative for Healthy Air & Local Economies. Jointly led by Environment Hamilton and Toronto Environmental Alliance, this two year project puts local air quality monitoring into the hands of community members.
The program engages community volunteers in monitoring urban air quality at the ‘street level’ in Hamilton and Toronto. Using easy-to-operate mobile air particulate monitoring equipment designed to be attached to backpacks, bikes, baby strollers, walkers or scooters, volunteers will walk, run, roll or ride through their neighbourhood collecting air quality data as they go.
Air monitoring results will be shared with the broader community, along with the economic, environmental and human health impacts of bad air quality. The aim is to use air monitoring data to spark neighbourhood conversations about improving local air quality by developing solutions that can be initiated by the community.