A community-Based REsearch on Air quality using THE magnetic bio-monitoring technique. – BREATHE

To what extent does environmental magnetism enable relevant bio-monitoring of air pollution to fine particles in urban and peri-urban areas? Can the integration of citizens from a metrology on bio-sensors up to the construction of an action plan serve as a lever on the political decisions that concern air quality? These two questions are at the heart of the BREATHE project. In response, we will implement a citizen science biomonitoring program by means of environmental magnetism techniques that can serve as a sound basis for a Participatory Action Research program. The challenge is to integrate the citizen into the construction and into the implementation of territorial public policies on air quality. In terms of metrology, the advantage of the BREATHE project is its capacity to produce, thanks to the technique used, a large number of fast and inexpensive measurements taking into account the presence of nanoparticles. These characteristics allow the production of singular maps with high spatial resolution of pollutant deposits according to a modi operandi integrating the citizens. BREATHE's whole challenge will be to bring the technique of environmental magnetism on biomaterials to a validation level that allows it to ultimately be used in the co-construction of (i) decision support tools integrating indicators of efficiency in order to more effectively implement public policies on air quality; and (ii) roadmaps for metrological and institutional reforms.
We have targeted three test areas on which there is a well-identified potential source of anthropogenic pollution to fine particles as well as a mobilization from the citizen to the elected officials already well advanced prior to the start of BREATHE. These three test zones correspond to the city of Saint-Aunes bordering a 12-lane motorway, to the cities of Valergues and Mauguio directly concerned by the emissions of a waste valorization plant, and to several "canyons" streets in urban areas in the metropolis of Toulouse. The ambition of BREATHE is to develop with and for the citizen a method that can be deployed in different territories and at different scales. This project received the support of the private ASF / VINCI company which financed the development and the implementation of an experimental bench to calibrate the magnetic measurement of pollutant deposits on plants, and the support of the territorial communities concerned, Toulouse Métropole and Agglomération du Pays de l’Or. BREATHE is a hybrid project that resolutely, and modestly in our own small way, falls within the tools to meet the challenges of a sustainable development, namely ecological development and development of solidarity.