Parisians would make smog alerts pretty, wouldn’t they. In a far more artistic way than a freeway-side scrolling marquee, a giant helium-filled balloon changes color to tell passers-by the ambient air quality.

Created by Aérophile, the AERO30NG Aérophile 550 model was launched in the Parc Andre Citroën in Paris. Using data registered by the air quality organization in Airparif, the balloon changes colors depending on pollution levels in the air. Green is crystal clear air, light green is clean, yellow is moderately icky, orange is breathe shallowly, and red is put-on-your-gas-mask. It also displays the air quality at major traffic intersections, so you know where to hold your breath.

It is as much eco-PR effort as practical alert system, which I like, and is such a clever way to alert a whole lot of people at once since it can be seen as far as 12 miles away. Farther than that, though, and you’ll need to check out pollution levels on Google Earth.

What is really neat is it actually functions as a balloon and can lift as many as 30 passengers up to 150 meters above the city. So I guess if the balloon is glowing red, you can hop on to try and get above the junk into some cleaner air. No matter what the color, it'd be pretty awesome to see Paris from a balloon.

Via PhysioOrg, Ecofriend

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Helium consumption
written by Brian , July 18, 2008

So how much helium is consumed in maintaining flight?

Helium is extracted from natural gas right? So more demand on natural gas.

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