Residents of the Greater Helsinki area will soon be able to order up an alarm service on their mobile phones that will send an SMS message when air quality levels fall below a given threshold.
The Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority (HSY) will run a pilot project for its SMS service this spring, but the actual service will be fully operational only from the spring of 2012.
It will be possible to tailor the alarm messages to one's own needs.
According to air quality expert Maria Myllynen from HSY, some users may want to be alerted when the air quality index dips to become "poor", while others may wish to be infomed when the level of fine particles in the atmosphere reaches a certain point.
Selection can also be made on local grounds.
Myllynen estimates that the users would be those with respiratory conditions that render them prone to problems when the air quality is poor, and those who are simply interested in air quality, for instance the parents of young children.
Alerts would be sent out automatically on the basis of readings at measuring stations in the region.
During the problematic period in the early spring, when there is a lot of dust in the air from winter gritting, the level of alerts would be tailored to avoid sending up to twenty messages a day repeating the same thing.
The service is expected to cost users something like a couple of euros per month.
