On a Saturday morning in Lagos, a number of volunteers in white “Run Lagos” t-shirts gathered for an air air pollution consciousness stroll. They break up into small teams and filed by way of the slender streets, placards in hand. One learn, “Air Is Free But Polluted Air Leads To Health And Climate Change Expenses.”
The stroll coordinators carried transportable air high quality sensors, logging particulate matter (PM)2.5 (wonderful particles) and PM10 (coarse particles), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), humidity and temperature readings in actual time.
By the time the stroll ended, the sensors had recorded a PM2.5 studying of 14 µg/m³ – a reasonable morning by Lagos requirements, the place readings sometimes common between 30 to 50 μg/m³ (over 35.5μg/m³ is taken into account unhealthy whereas a studying of 12 and beneath is taken into account good).
This stroll is a part of a wider air high quality monitoring effort in Lagos led by UrbanBetter, one of many implementing companions of the World Athletics’ Running for Clean Air initiative, which leverages metropolis marathons and present operating communities to gather air air pollution information in city areas. Lagos is the second metropolis to host the challenge after Warsaw, Poland.
Last week, the athletics governing physique announced the second part of the initiative. In partnership with the Clean Air Fund, this system is increasing its monitoring community to cowl upcoming athletics occasions in Botswana, Thailand, and Spain.
“’Running for Clean Air’ phase two marks a defining moment: for the first time, a major sports federation is systematically monitoring air quality across multiple continents and competition types,” says World Athletics President Sebastian Coe.
Mapping the marathon route
In 2025, throughout the first part in Lagos, sensors have been deployed alongside the route of the annual Lagos City marathon.
“The data we gathered was not surprising to us,” says Waziri Abubakar, UrbanBetter Hub Liaison Officer.
The heatmap of the PM10 ranges on the route of the 2025 Lagos City Marathon exhibits the best focus on the Lagos Mainland (higher area), whereas Lagos Island (lowest area) confirmed higher air high quality as a result of it’s inside a restricted residential space.
The readings confirmed constantly elevated air pollution at main intersections and throughout the Lagos Mainland, the place actions like fish smoking and poor waste administration drive localised spikes.
The ranges of the greenhouse gasoline, NO2, adopted the same sample to PM10, with the best readings within the higher area. However, readings have been additionally excessive in the direction of the tip of the race. NO2 is a traffic-related air pollutant related to cardiovascular and respiratory mortality following short-term publicity.
UrbanBetter now integrates these findings into the state’s regulatory framework by sharing information with the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA), the state’s main environmental regulator.
“A primary outcome of this data was the decision to reroute the 2026 marathon to Lagos Island to leverage its superior air quality,” says Abubakar.
While the air high quality information supported this shift, the race organisers’ official assertion omitted environmental elements, as a substitute framing the change as an evolution and a dedication to their values of “excellence, safety, and world-class delivery.”
Following the tip of the primary part, World Athletics gifted the air-monitoring system to LASEPA, with the company committing to utilizing the info for coverage choices. According to Abubakar, the company can also be taking a look at organising low-emission zones in Lagos, with the info serving to decide the place these zones can be positioned.
Three screens for 20 million folks
Sub-Saharan Africa averages one ground-level air high quality monitor per 16 million folks. Lagos now has three reference-grade monitors and a number of other low-cost sensors for its 20 million residents.
“What was missing and is still missing is that for a population of over 20 million, that is not enough,” says Abubakar.
One of the three reference screens in Lagos is a United States Embassy station with an unsure future amid shifting American environmental policies.
Air air pollution continues to be a number one danger issue for early demise, surpassed solely by hypertension, and 90% of the burden falls on low- and middle-income nations, in line with the State of Global Air 2025 report.
The report attributes round 200,000 deaths in Nigeria to air air pollution yearly, making it the nation’s third leading risk factor for premature death.
Grassroots information, government-sized gaps
In the absence of presidency monitoring, low-cost sensors have develop into an necessary supply of knowledge in resource-constrained locations like Nigeria.
The 2023 IQAir World Air Quality Report discovered that greater than half of the world’s air high quality information got here from grassroots neighborhood efforts.
The second part of the World Athletics’ Running for Clean Air initiative will kick off on the World Athletics Relays in Gaborone, Botswana, a rustic whose primary air quality legislation dates again to 1971.
The WHO’s Health and Environment Scorecard offers Botswana a coverage rating of 24 out of 100, reflecting weak adoption and implementation of nationwide plans to handle environmental well being threats.
“The data we generate across Gaborone, Bangkok and Valencia will be transformative for World Athletics, for our member federations, and for the broader sports community,” says Dr Stéphane Bermon, Director of the Health and Science Department at World Athletics.
The closest precedent to the game’s physique method is India’s System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR). It was constructed for the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games and now a everlasting nationwide forecasting community masking 5 Indian cities. But SAFAR was designed from the beginning as a authorities challenge with sustained public funding.
When the runners go dwelling
Lagos State has expanded its sensor community roughly fivefold between 2024 and 2025 to 114 units, with a goal of 200 sensors by late 2026. But that progress has been pushed partly by overseas donations and partnerships.
The fiscal image stays unclear as its air high quality commitments are buried inside a broad environmental funds with no public breakdown.
While the general state funds grew by 32% in 2026, the particular allocation for the atmosphere sector decreased by practically 18% in comparison with 2025, falling to 235.96 billion Naira (roughly $174 million).
The initiative has proven it could actually gather information in locations that lack it. What is but to be seen is that if this information creates an enduring system or stays a snapshot from race day.
“It would require political will and sensitisation of key stakeholders on how air quality affects the health of people living in their cities to get the buy-in of the government and citizens,” says Abubakar.
Image Credits: UrbanBetter, Wold Athletics, World Athletics, Ekuma Barnabas.
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