Thanks to a program called YourAir, thousands of people suffering from asthma and other breathing problems living in Central London will soon be able to be alerted of peaks of pollution by text messages sent to their cell phones.

This program, which soon will be extended to other areas in London, has been developed with the help of the European Space Agency (ESA). Currently, YourAir uses air quality forecasts provided by satellites as well as information coming from local traffic roads.

And it should soon incorporate more European regional data, as it becomes obvious to ESA researchers that a peak of pollution in London might have originated in the Ruhr Valley in Germany — or even in Italy. Here are additional comments and references.