Air pollution is becoming big business – and not without cause. The World Health Organisation estimates it is responsible for 2m deaths worldwide every year.
Over the past decade, scientists have been uncovering the short- and long-term health impacts of ingesting such pollution, to try to tackle the growing mortality rate.
But while governmental approaches to date have focused on trying to minimise and contain air pollution, a Dutch design studio has developed a futuristic technology that could actually remove pollution from cities. Called the smog-free tower, it acts as a giant vacuum cleaner, sucking up 30,000 cubic metres of air per hour and cleansing it of harmful particles such as PH2.5 and PH10 to the extent that the air pumped back out is 75% cleaner than before.
“It works by creating fields of static electricity, attracting or magnetising these tiny dirt particles so you can suck them up,” says entrepreneur Daan Roosegaarde, who came up with the idea for the technology two years ago after seeing six-year-old children in Beijing suffering from lung cancer. Roosegaarde has already built a seven-metre-high version of his tower in Rotterdam, and revealed that authorities in Beijing have purchased the technology and are looking to roll it out across multiple Chinese cities.
Source: The Guardian
