We tend to forget that we also destroy ourselves while polluting the planet and closing our eyes to the responsibility to keep it clean. Nowadays more and more people die of diseases, caused by toxic air across large urban areas, while others suffer from allergies, lung and heart diseases etc. At the same time it’s always darkest before dawn – and environmentally sensitive inventors have already started to come up with unusual rescue ideas.

Peter Zhivkov knows what it is like to live in one of the world’s most polluted cities. Only two weeks spent in Ho Shi Ming, Vietnam, where you can literally see the air, and the respiratory suffering of his childhood was back again. At the same time the young engineer started to seek some solution, helping people to breathe freely in this terrible environment. That was how the so-called smart mask was invented – for people with respiratory issues, for cyclers, outdoor sports fans etc.

“The mask has unique vision and a ventilator which connects with mobile devices via bluetooth,” Eng. Petar Zhivkov says. “Thus the device brings in additional information on the level of pollution outside, on the mask filters’ condition etc. On days with excessive levels of harmful emissions the application notifies that the mask is necessary.”

The mask has filters that clean fine dust particles, protect from pollen, bacteria and other air polluters – and one can breathe easily with the assistance of the fan inside. One of its major features is that it doesn’t create difficulties for communication due to the transparent segment in front of the user’s mouth.

Yet another invention of Eng. Peter Zhivkov and his team has been ready for a month now – it is a mobile application by the name of Airlief – and it can be now downloaded for free.

“We used the assistance of doctors to develop several pieces of advice aimed at people who would like to learn what to do outdoors and in real time”, the engineer says. “The mobile application shows the purity of air around us and provides suggestions on our behavior. I came up with the idea during the broad public discussion of polluted air last winter – but there was this lack of information on the actions of the average citizen needed in such a situation.”

However, what future do we have in front of us – more people with masks or a higher level of environmental conscience and cleaner air?

“We all must definitely work for cleaner air, but the problem is so serious that it can’t be solved within a month or a year,” the inventor states. “Harmful atmosphere emissions will continue doing harm over that period and even if we don’t see it, we know that those affect our respiratory and cardio-vascular system. So, those masks are more like a short-term option for protection whenever the air is strongly polluted. For instance, right now Sofia’s air has reached its optimum, but during the cold season its quality indexes excess the norms many times. Then we do need that mask.”

Eng. Peter Zhivkov hopes that his smart innovation will hit the market this year, at an affordable price. At the moment he is looking for a producer here or abroad. Internet users from no less than 50 countries have shown interest towards his product.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev