In South Africa, as in many developing and newly-industrialised countries, legislation on air pollution has failed to keep pace with mushrooming industries. So local residents, like many in poor communities around the globe, have faced the problem of investigating their claim that industries on their doorsteps are making them sick. The small yet tenacious South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) has become the first African grassroots group to take the science into their own hands by taking their own air samples.