Plastic waste burning poses significant & detrimental environmental and health risks in many developing countries, including Indonesia. Burning plastic produces various types of hazardous air pollution, including dioxin, furan, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), black carbon (BC) and microplastics in the form of particulate matter. While the time impact is clear, there is no available system capable of identifying and monitoring the exact distribution of air pollution, especially from plastic-burning emissions. Necessitating creative and data-driven strategies to monitor the effects of air pollution.
As part of the NIHR Global Health Research Centre for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and Environmental Change, I am interested in using cutting-edge technologies and state-of-the-art tools to study the link between waste burning emissions and NCDs in real-time. Using the real-time measurement data, combined with a distribution model, I aim to establish real–time correlations between plastic-burning emissions and NCD.
With The NIHR Short Placement Award for Research Collaboration (NIHR SPARC) support, I had a chance to do a short placement session/course/module at the School of Public Health, Imperial College London, one of the world’s leading institutions in Environmental Health. During my training, I was able to develop technical skills, especially in the utilization of atmospheric dispersion modelling systems, or ADMS, to estimate the emissions concentration in various areas of plastic burning.
ADMS is an advanced software, which has previously been used to simulate the behaviour of air pollution such as PM2.5, PM10, NOx, NO2, NO, O₃, VOCs, SO₂, CO, benzene, butadiene, and HCl. The ADMS provides a prediction of where the emissions are moved by the meteorological conditions, like wind direction and velocity, which is very important in terms of estimating how much emission is released and exposes people in the area. The software itself and my proficient familiarity with it are key to my future research.
Unfortunately, due to my first visa application not coming through, I had to begin my placement remotely in early January 2025. Although I could not travel to the Imperial College, as I had planned, this unplanned period of remote research proved highly productive. I used the opportunity to collect data on meteorological and particulate emissions in East Java, which played a crucial role in my training by providing a rich set of data to work on and with. The data itself was downloaded directly from the sensors that we installed several months earlier. I also used the time to review dispersion models through scientific journals and published research. Then, towards the end of January, my visa application came through. Equipped with my collected data and literature research, I travelled to England.
Upon my arrival in London, I joined the Air Pollution Modelling team, part of the Imperial College’s research team. Under the supervision of an expert in air quality and emission modelling, Dr. Sean Beevers and the guiding hand of Dr Gregor Stewart, I learned about ADMS workflows, explored the impact of various conditions, and studied the process of formatting and validating meteorological data for the model.
I also learnt how critical parameters like how much particle emissions are produced and how fast they are released into the atmosphere which were essential inputs for ADMS, can be accurately derived. One month in, by the end of February 2025, I started customizing the simulation using the local parameters in East Java, initially for quarterly timescales, then narrowing (fine-tuning it) down to monthly and daily scenarios. By doing this, I can have more information about how much emissions were released in the plastic burning site in the different time scale. This will provide information about the plastic burning exposure dose and trace the change in the NCD cases.
In the final month, I dove into more detailed features of ADMS. I started with simple inputs and progressed to sequential time series inputs using a file containing the data on plastic burning characteristics, like the location, how much the emission is produced, how fast it is released into the air, and the time of burning activity, which helps reflect the dynamic of environmental conditions better. I also evaluated the model’s accuracy, by identifying the optimal configuration for more reliable results.
Towards, the end of my placement, I had the chance to present the preliminary results of my research at the 2nd Global Health Research Centre symposium held in Leicester. While the placement ended before a fully validated model could be finalized, it helped lay the rock-solid foundation for my study and research. This was my first international research placement, and it offered a valuable opportunity to develop new skills in data integration, spatial modelling, and how to operate ADMS.
I also gained firsthand experience in collaborative research environments—participating in weekly lab meetings, engaging with researchers across disciplines, and observing how project goals evolve through team feedback and real-world data challenges. The work culture at my host lab emphasized both independence and open exchange, which greatly enhanced my ability to think critically and adaptively.
For the next steps, I will continue to run the simulation with refined inputs, comparing model prediction using actual sensor data to assess the model’s performance and create more specific models that represent the study site’s conditions.
This placement has truly been a turning point- a SPARC that ignited new inspiration in my journey as a researcher in air pollution and environmental modelling. My training at the Imperial College London, working hands-on with the ADMS system, and overcoming logistical challenges, has equipped me with essential skills that will support both my academic research and long-term career. The experience also significantly strengthened the technical capacity of the NIHR Global Health Research Centre, particularly in modelling and understanding the distribution of air pollution in our region, by providing information about the distribution of plastic burning emissions and the estimation of the exposure doses in the area. This information is important, especially for community engagement and treatment. SPARC made all of this possible—by providing not only financial support but also technical and logistic assistance, offering me the opportunity to train at one of the world’s leading institutions driving positive change in environmental health research.
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This blog was authored by Eko Teguh Purwito Adi
About the author:
Eko Teguh Purwito Adi– Eko is a researcher with a background in Physics, specifically focusing on air quality and its health impacts. He holds a Master of Science degree and is affiliated with the Laboratory of Air Quality and Health Impact within the Department of Physics at Brawijaya University. Eko’s research focuses on studying the impact of air pollution, particularly particulate matter (PM) and its effects on human health.
This research was funded by the NIHR (Global Health Research Centre for Non-communicable Diseases and Environmental Change) using UK international development funding from the UK Government to support global health research. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the UK government.
