Pupils at four primary schools in Bow have teamed up with air quality consultants and a children’s illustrator to create a pollution map of the area, to help children breathe cleaner air every day.

The children used personal exposure monitors to measure the amount of pollution they are exposed to on different routes around their schools. The map highlights the most polluted streets and recommends using alternative cleaner streets and parks.

The monitoring conducted by the children showed that, on the backstreets, pollution can be up 50% lower than on the main roads. So they have now discovered for themselves that choosing back roads to get to school is a very simple way to reduce the amount of polluted air they breathe.