Smog is not health-friendly and is responsible for quite a number of problems pertaining to respiratory system and it is also the cause of shortened life expectancy. It is made up of emissions from vehicles and factories. People are forced to wear masks in area where smog concentration is high and as of now, attempts are being made at getting rid of it altogether.
Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde has got a plan to tackle the smog. He is from Netherlands and now in Beijing, which is notorious for smog. He plans on sucking the smog out of sky by making use of static electricity and then using the collected matter by converting it into high-end jewelry.
The technology has already been used, however, on a smaller scale – hospitals use it for air filtration systems. Once the dust particles are ionized, they possess a positive charge and a negatively charged electrode is capable of pulling them out of air. As of now, a large scale installment is being worked upon and shall be installed in a park in Beijing. The plan involves collecting smog particles from an area of 40 sq. meters.
Once removed from air, the smog takes the shape of a sooty – black powder. Roosegaarde said, “It is a strange process to suck the pollution out of the air and have it in our hands a few minutes later. It looks like a mystic black powder, but most mesmerizing about this is that normally you would have to breathe it.”
These collected particles shall be transformed into jewelry eventually with two models currently being worked upon. One sports a clear stone that has a cube of soot embedded into it, while the other model uses smog powder to create fake diamonds.
Roosegaarde further added, “I wanted to make people part of the solution, not part of the problem. Making tangible and wearable material of the smog is a way of creating awareness. By buying or sharing the smog ring, you donate 1,000 cubic meters of clean air to the city.”