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A young inventor has won praise for developing an eco-friendly device to cut the country's killer air pollution.
Christchurch schoolgirl Amy Clucas, 13, is the lead inventor of a device that uses water to trap harmful particles from a fire on the way up a chimney, and prevents it getting into the environment.
Smoke from fireplaces is one of the two largest contributors to the nation's air pollution problem, which a recent report said was claiming nearly 1100 lives a year in New Zealand.
Last year, Christchurch breached the smog safety threshold 32 times between May and September, with the highest reading nearly four times the acceptable limit. Auckland recorded six breaches last year.
Amy came up with her "Smog Hog" device last year with schoolfriend Anna Pratt. "I've always been interested in science and I really wanted to reduce smog because of the health effects and the environmental effects," Amy said.
But the invention had a drawback.
Water which was sprayed to capture the harmful particles in the chimney was resulting in a poisonous black liquid being built up.
So Amy set about coming up with a solution. After a series of experiments this year, she found that the liquid left over could be successfully recycled into briquettes that could be reused as a fuel.
"And it can all be done domestically as well," she said.
Amy's overall invention has just been judged the best in the junior section of the Lincoln University Schools Science and Technology Fair.
Bryan Jenkins, chief executive of Environment Canterbury, said Amy had impressed with her "conceptual thinking".
Not only had she come up with a system to prevent harmful particulate getting into the environment, she had found a way to recycle the waste product as well.
Dr Jenkins said the concept would require some more work to become a practical reality in homes, but Amy had shown a way ahead to combating air pollution.
"It's very good thinking."
