It is in the Air
Studying particulate matter pollution in Africa
Particulate matter (PM), is composed of particles of solids or liquids in the air which can be dust, dirt, soot, smoke and a few liquid drops. Particles like smoke are large enough to be seen in the air while others are so small that they are invisible in the air. Particle pollution can come from one of two sources: primary (forest fires) or secondary (power plants, cars that contain PM2.5).
Inhaling PM2.5 particles are more dangerous because they can enter the deepest parts of your lungs — or even your bloodstream. Particle pollution is most likely to harm the health of the following people; people suffering from heart or lung diseases (such as asthma), older people, children and babies etc. Particle pollution has also been associated with irritation of the eyes, irritation of the lungs and throat, difficulty breathing, cancer of the lungs and birth complications (e.g. low birth weight).
The purpose of this study was to analyse and visualise the level of ambient PM2.5 pollution in Africa by population. The data was designed in Adobe Illustrator and the html was code with D3.js for an interactive data visualisation.
Data Source: Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser (2019) - "Outdoor Air Pollution". Published online at OurWorldInData.org.
Project by: Vanessa Ongodi
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ongodi_viz/
Link to interactive viz: https://pm-2-5.vercel.app/
Rough sketches
Source:
Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser (2021) - “Air Pollution” Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/air-pollution' [Online Resource]
