Welcome to the thirtieth edition of our newsletter, as we get deep into product testing and start putting together the build up to our mobile app launch! This newsletter is aimed at investors, collaborators, future hires and early adopters of our products.
A new Nature Communications study found that just one hour of breathing in high levels of particulate matter (PM) can impair selective attention and emotion recognition four hours later, even though working memory and reaction times remained unaffected. Using a swimming nose clip did not protect participants, suggesting that PM likely affects cognition through lung-brain pathways. Meanwhile, a study in Bogotá, Colombia, showed that higher levels of PM2.5 reduce students' overall test scores by about 8% of a standard deviation, and maths scores by more than 10%. The findings highlight how short-term air pollution exposure - like a typical daily commute - undermines focus and productivity later in the day. By personalising air quality insights, we can empower individuals, schools, and workplaces to make smarter choices and protect cognitive performance. Please join us on our mission - Personalising Air Quality, for everyone.
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Hot off the press
- we are deep into user testing for the beta version of our mobile app, with huge thanks to our volunteer testers! Our first AirTrack product was launched in September, as a web app, integrating with Strava. The mobile app will offer lots of new functionality including integrated GPS and ability to synch with Apple Health
- one issue that has come up is presentation of air quality data - we have investigated it in our latest article. We have also been redesigning our website ready for our mobile app launch, with thanks to Sustainable Ventures and will bring you previews soon. We are also trialling new content in our social media - please follow, comment and provide any feedback!
- we've been involved in outreach events with contacts from India and Belgium and continue to be open to international collaborations.
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Go with us towards clean air
- the job ad for our AI scientist is live. Please get in touch if you are interested or know someone who might be!
- to complement our user testing, we need a group of people who have never used AirTrack before to test our onboarding flow. If you are willing to do this in the next few weeks, please get in touch - hello@airawarelabs.com
- we continue to be amazed by all the support we get from far and wide. Big shout outs to Paula Castro Fraga Carl De'Athe Ruaraidh Dobson Christa Hasenkopf Nina van Schaick Nina Davies Amandine Alexandre Dale Shephard Tom Bright Stephane Kuhn Denise Celeghin Catherine Muirden Jacqueline Morrison Tamara Polajnar, PhD Daniel Wardle Jason Bootle Clare Scully, PhD Gideon Stott Yuxi Pan Jonathan Miller Connor Morrison Emily Brown Vaida Ska-McNeill Olivia Sibony Victoria Nicholl Jasmine Reggiani Samuel Burgess Jozef Paul Andrew Landau Richard Coates Aisling Roper Yi Zhang Hannah Cooper Jonathan Gilmour Daniela Tucan Alex Cornean, PhD Gillian Rodgers Sarah Tizzard Chris Charles. We hope you'll all continue with us towards clean air.
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Meet the team
This week, we are meeting Ksenia Fortin-Brazeau one of our recent investors, who is also our Marketing Adviser. With 15 years of experience in agency and client-side roles, Ksenia brings a deep understanding of the entire marketing ecosystem. Having worked across various brands at Danone, Nestlé, Manning Gottlieb OMD - from media planning and consumer experience to brand strategy and innovation - Ksenia is known for her insight-driven approach and laser focus on growth.
Ksenia says: "I saw Louise’s pitch at a Businettes event and walked away thinking, 'This is brilliant - how has no one done this before?' But a great product alone is never enough - it’s the people behind it who determine a company’s success. The team at Air Aware Labs gave me the confidence that they have what it takes to grow the business while driving change. My career naturally led me toward the health industry, and I’m excited to support AAL on their mission to make clean air accessible to all and minimise air pollution's impact on people's health and wellbeing."
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Get in touch
Please follow Air Aware Labs to stay in touch with our progress. If anything in this newsletter has piqued your interest, please send me (Louise Thomas) or William Hicks a message! You can also email us at hello@airawarelabs.com
