Increase Life Safety of Agri-Stakeholders Through IoT-Based Air Pollution Alarming System: Bangladesh Prospect

Air pollution is the foremost life risk factor in Bangladesh, causing over 270,000 premature deaths annually and imposing a healthcare burden of approximately $11 billion. Agricultural workers constitute a critically vulnerable group due to prolonged outdoor exposure. This study proposes and validates a wearable, low-cost IoT-based Air Quality Index (AQI) monitoring and alarming system designed to mitigate these risks. The system architecture utilizes an ESP32 microcontroller with sensors suits (PMS5003/MQ135), solar power, MQTT protocol for security, and a cloud-based notification platform. And utilized MIT Apps to visualize the data in real-time to users. A survey of 1,500 agricultural stakeholders identified air pollution as a primary concern, with 54% endorsing a smart wearable alert system as the preferred intervention. The deployed system collected data over 160 days in 2025, revealing that air quality was at "Unhealthy" or worse levels for 40% of the period. Performance validation against a reference Teledyne (TD) T630 analyzer showed a mean difference of only 0.83 µg/m³ and a standard deviation difference of 1.17, confirming high accuracy. It is concluded that this IoT-based proactive alerting framework can significantly enhance life safety for agricultural workers by enabling behavioral adaptation, reducing exposure, and preventing associated morbidity, mortality, and economic losses.

Air Quality Index, Internet of Things, Agricultural Safety

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