Meet Wynd – a small consumer air purifier and PM2.5 sensor.
We’ve been testing it out with the Sahara dust over the last few months and it has been reasonably accurate – following the trends in the particulate count predicted on the Windy app and those reported by the Met offices in Martinique, Guadeloup, and Puerto Rico.
For most of the past few months, we have had many days where Wynd has measured moderate to unhealthy levels of PM2.5 due to the increased dust. Sahara dust can be an irritant to sensitive individuals or those with Asthma and other lung issues.
St maarten has a poorly managed garbage dump in the great salt pond, bordering it’s capital, Philipsburg. On the 7th of August 2018 the St Maarten garbage dump erupted into flames once again. What made this fire unique was low winds, low levels of Sahara dust, and dry clear weather – all good circumstances for comparing the PM2.5 levels in various areas.
Screenshots from the Wynd app:
Guana Bay / Sucker Garden Rd – SMMC Cay Hill – ACE Cole Bay. This is not standing in the actual cloud of smoke, but the scent of the acrid smoke is detectable.
The air downwind of the dump has almost 4 times as many microscopic particles, and these particles are almost certainly many times more carcinogenic and damaging. I shudder to think what professional sensitive equipment will detect.
Wynd Review
Wynd is lightweight, rechargeable, and portable. It is not a substitute for clean air, but it can lower the amount of microscopic particles in a small enclosed space. We have found it particularly useful in the car – especially one with duct tape windows thanks to Irma.
Wynd has a small removable sensor for detecting PM2.5 . With that measurement, the device gives you an Air Quality Index score (AQI). PM2.5 is a measure of atmospheric particles 3% of the diameter of a human hair. These small particles penetrate deep into our lungs and circulatory system.
What Wynd can’t tell you is a measure of greenhouse gasses, volatile organic compounds (VOC’s), and how bad the actual PM2.5 particles are for us. High humidity, Sahara dust, and cooking aromas will all give an elevated reading.
The battery life on the wynd tracker isn’t very good, unless you have it attached to the air purifier. It also doesn’t have any memory, so you only know your accumulated pollution if you keep it connected to your phone (which chews the phone battery!)
It might be worth looking at the Plume Labs Flow – it uses crowdsourcing to map out pollution levels and can measure more types of pollution – PM2.5, PM10, VOC’s, and NO2.
Wynd now offers a purifier only option at a lower price point:
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