Low-cost air pollution monitoring system—an opportunity for reducing the health risk associated with physical activity in polluted air

The issue of air pollution by particulate matter (PM) concerns many places in the world. At the same time, many residents undertake physical activity (recreation, rehabilitation, sport) in the open air. Generally, the amount of dust concentration depends on both the place (center or periphery of the city) and the time of day. In the present study we describe the outcome of monitoring of the state of air pollution by particle matter (PM(10)) in the Kraków agglomeration area in order to show that it can provide information concerning air quality in the area where people practice varied kinds of sports in the open air. The measurements of PM(10) have been made by a few stations with identical construction working as one network. The details of the air pollution monitoring system and its data quality verification have been described. The network stations made multipoint observations across the Kraków Metropolitan Area during the year 2017 in eight locations. The locations selected represent a diverse spectrum of terrain conditions in which the Kraków agglomeration community undertakes physical activity. For most months of 2017, the minimum monthly average 4-hour PM(10) concentrations were recorded between 10–14 h, regardless of location, whereas the maximum was between 18–22. We also noticed a huge differences in the average monthly value of PM(10) in some locations within the Kraków agglomeration—ranging between 4.9–339.0 µg m(−3). This indicates that some regions of the city are more suitable for performance of physical activity in the open air than others. In conclusion, we postulate that a low-cost air pollution monitoring system is capable of providing valuable information concerning air quality in a given region, which seems to be of importance also to people who practice varied sports activities in the open air.