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A city-average air quality figure conceals very large differences between neighbourhoods, and the worst-affected areas are usually the poorest.
People make decisions about children, exercise and ventilation based on numbers that do not describe where they actually live.
Support neighbourhood-level monitoring in covered constituencies and publish results alongside the official city figure, clearly labelled as indicative.
Low-cost sensors operated by volunteers, published with explicit accuracy caveats and never presented as regulatory-grade measurement.
Risk
Low-cost sensors are less accurate and can mislead if presented as official.
Mitigation
Always label as indicative. Always show the official station reading next to ours. Publish our calibration method.