{"id":34725,"date":"2024-11-15T20:55:15","date_gmt":"2024-11-15T12:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/?p=34725"},"modified":"2024-11-15T21:05:06","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T13:05:06","slug":"breathelahore-raising-air-pollution-awareness-through-pencil-sketches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/blog\/breathelahore-raising-air-pollution-awareness-through-pencil-sketches\/","title":{"rendered":"Breathe:Lahore: Raising Air Pollution Awareness Through Pencil Sketches"},"content":{"rendered":"

Breathe:Lahore is a public art project created to spotlight the urgent issue of air pollution in Lahore, one of the most polluted cities in the world. British artist Dryden Goodwin collaborated with Abid Omar,\u00a0an advocate for clean air in Pakistan, to produce over 230 pencil sketches capturing Omar\u2019s breath. These images, now displayed across Lahore on posters, billboards, and digital projections, aim to inspire urgent dialogue on air pollution and its impact on health and well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breathe:Lahore<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Omar joined Breathe:Lahore after Goodwin struggled to find a local volunteer willing to participate. His participation involved intensive, four-hour sessions where he was asked to stay \u201cout of breath\u201d as Goodwin sketched remotely from London. To capture him fighting for breath breathing, Omar would jog or use an exercise bike before each session. Reflecting on the experience, Omar shared, \u201cThe experience of gasping for air, feeling the weight of each breath, made me acutely aware of our vulnerability to air quality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u00a9<\/strong>Mahera Omar\/Courtesy of Pakistan Air Quality Inititive and Invisible Dust<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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\u00a9<\/strong>Courtesy Mahera Omar for Pakistan Air Quality Initiative, 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The Urgent Pollution Crisis in Lahore<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lahore ranked as the second most polluted city on our 2023 list of the ‘25 Most Polluted Cities in the World<\/a>\u2019. Lahore\u2019s air quality is among the worst globally, with an annual PM2.5 level of 95.1 \u00b5g\/m\u00b3 in 2023, 19 times higher than the WHO\u2019s recommended annual limit of 5 \u00b5g\/m\u00b3. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, on Nov 4th, Lahore ordered all primary schools to close for a week in response to soaring pollution levels. The PM2.5 level is above 300 \u00b5g\/m\u00b3, which is 20 times higher than the WHO\u2019s 24-hour limit of 15 \u00b5g\/m\u00b3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lahore is a city in urgent need of awareness and action on air pollution.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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\u00a9<\/strong>Farooqi Faisal, Courtesy of Dryden Goodwin and Invisible Dust 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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\u00a9<\/strong>Courtesy of Dryden Goodwin and Invisible Dust 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

From London to Lahore: the \u201cBreathe\u201d Series<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Breathe:Lahore continues Goodwin\u2019s Breathe series, which began in 2012 and was revived in 2022 for London\u2019s Borough of Culture. In 2023, Goodwin held a special event, Breathe for Ella, on London\u2019s Southbank in memory of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who in 2013 became the first person globally to have air pollution listed as a cause of death. Supported by London\u2019s Mayor Sadiq Khan, the series has collaborated with Transport for London, Network Rail, and more than 60 other health, environment, and policy organizations, promoting initiatives like the \u201cElla\u2019s Law\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This collaborative model is now being applied in Lahore, where Breathe has partnered with Invisible Dust and local organizations such as the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative. By merging art with science and public health data, Breathe:Lahore fosters emotional connections to air pollution and inspire tangible action toward cleaner air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How I Protect Myself<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Smart Air is a certified B Corp committed to combating the myths big companies use to inflate the price of clean air. Smart Air provides open data and empirically backed<\/a>, no-nonsense purifiers and masks, that remove the same particles as the big companies for a fraction of the cost. Only corporations benefit when clean air is a luxury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find our distributor in Pakistan<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Breathe:Lahore is a public art project created to spotlight the urgent issue of air pollution in Lahore, one of the most polluted cities in the world. British artist Dryden Goodwin collaborated with Abid Omar,\u00a0an advocate for clean air in Pakistan, to produce over 230 pencil sketches capturing Omar\u2019s breath. These … <\/p>\n

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