All content from Fox-13: https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/whats-being-done-to-rid-utah-of-inversion-pollution “I think one thing you’ll probably hear people say about air quality is there’s really not any one single like, silver bullet that’s easy to do right now because we’ve done a lot of the easy things,” said Dr. Kerry Kelly, an associate professor chemical engineering at the University of Utah. The fight against inversion is a never-ending battle, but Kelly says the state has made some important moves over the years to help, especially when it comes to the main factor of emissions: transportation. Experts say Utahns need to constantly be looking for cleaner and more efficient furnaces, water heaters, and other more efficient systems. “It comes to just making sure that we are keeping up with like the latest technologies,” said Kelly. “The latest ways to reduce our mission and being efficient as our population continues to grow.”
Utah researchers put airborne viral transmission risks under the microscope
Source: https://attheu.utah.edu/science-technology/utah-researchers-put-airborne-viral-transmission-risks-under-the-microscope/ New study takes a closer look at the viability of flu and coronavirus after aerosol-producing events in hospitals. EVAN LERNER – COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING As the COVID pandemic began to unfold in late 2019, researchers around the world scrambled to learn as much as possible about the novel virus responsible for the disease. Until more was known about how this microorganism jumped from person to person, the only surefire mitigation strategy involved strict lockdowns and quarantines. And even as more of the picture came into focus, healthcare experts, policymakers and the general public clashed over the remaining uncertainty. While a better understanding of the coronavirus has enabled most of public life to return to pre-lockdown routines, one critical setting still struggles with this uncertainty: hospitals. Working with or around infected patients means that coming into contact with virus-laden aerosols is unavoidable, but the riskiness of any given interaction is difficult to assess. Now, researchers at the University of Utah are conducting a study that aims to quantify these risks in a more fundamental way than ever before. Rather than relying on intuition or guesswork, hospitals will have real data on how infectious viruses remain after common aerosol-generating procedures, from performing CPR to changing a patient’s bedsheets. The study is led by Kerry Kelly, associate professor of chemical engineering in the University of Utah’s John and Marcia Price College of Engineering. She is collaborating with researchers at the U’s Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, including Darrah Sleeth, associate professor in the Division of Occupational & Environmental Health and at the Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, Catherine Loc-Carrillo, adjunct assistant professor in the Division of Epidemiology, and Kristi Warren, research assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary Medicine, as well as Rachael Jones at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.When working with patients known to have a contagious disease, healthcare providers and other hospital workers follow a litany of procedures to protect themselves, as well as other patients, from infection. These procedures are tailored to the organism in question and the risk entailed by the specific interactions the patient requires.Coronavirus presents a particular challenge for infection control given how quickly and easily it spreads. With viruses hitching a ride on the moisture of every exhale, even the most basic interactions with infected patients could be considered high risk.Previous attempts to quantify this exposure risk have measured how much viral genetic material aerosols contain, but this data is limited when it comes to a key element: just because viral DNA or RNA is present in the sample does not mean that it was part of a functioning virus when it was captured.“When you pull air through a solid filter, you can catch virus-carrying aerosols, but then they quickly dry out and die,” Kelly said. “By capturing them in a liquid, we’ll be able to tell whether the aerosols emitted by these procedures contained enough viable virus to actually cause an infection.”Kelly has been working with this technology as part of her research on particulate-based air pollution. When the pandemic hit and the risk of various activities became a fiercely debated topic, she immediately began brainstorming how to apply her expertise to the problem.“There are many activities that take place in a hospital that could be considered ‘aerosol-generating procedures,’” Sleeth said. “Although it seems obvious that some are riskier than others, there still isn’t a good way of comparing them. That means decisions are currently being made with incomplete information, and that can have real consequences for both patients and healthcare workers.Supported by a 3-year $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, the Utah and UCLA researchers will collect aerosol samples from real hospital interactions with both influenza and COVID patients. The potential aerosol-generating procedures studied will include medical procedures with obvious risks of encountering aerosols, such as intubating a patient or measuring their pulmonary strength, as well as everyday interactions, such as changing bed linens.Once the samples are captured, the researchers will associate particle sizes with viral load and virus viability, with a long-term goal of developing appropriate protective measures. Correlating an aerosol’s diameter to its likelihood of containing functional viruses, for example, could directly inform infection control procedures, such as what kinds of personal protective equipment are necessary for a procedure.“The best ways to protect healthcare personnel from infectious aerosols remains quite controversial among some stakeholders, but it is critical to the health of workers and patients that we build an evidence base that enables robust decision making,” Jones said.
Protecting kids from Utah’s worsening dust pollution
Source: https://attheu.utah.edu/science-technology/protecting-kids-from-utahs-worsening-dust-pollution/ With federal funding, professor Kerry Kelly will deploy PM10 monitors at 50 schools to produce highly localized forecasts. BRIAN MAFFLY – RESEARCH COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST Nearly every day in every corner of Utah, young athletes train or compete in the outdoors, breathing in air that may be, at times, laden with fine particulate matter, dust, ozone, smoke, exhaust and other pollutants. It’s past time school and health officials got a handle on the exposure kids face when engaged in outdoor activities that are supposed to be healthy, according to Kerry Kelly of University’s College of Engineering. And she has a plan. With the help of a million-dollar grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), it’s about to be implemented in collaboration with various agencies. The idea is to install low-cost air quality monitoring equipment targeting specific pollutants all over the state, both inside and outdoors, to help schools, athletic associations and local health districts make data-informed decisions. “I’m trying to cobble together funding to get 50 outdoor monitors. Ideally, we will eventually go for every athletic field in the state. We’re starting with high schools,” Kelly said. “There are a lot of lungs out there. We’re trying to help people make good decisions. If I can’t really see across the field, should I not be holding this event? Is it fog? Is it particle pollution? What’s going on?” Utah’s state monitoring network is made up of expensive regulatory equipment, which limits the number of monitors that can be deployed to just 12 mostly urban counties. That leaves 17 rural counties in the dark. While the state monitoring stations closely track fine particulate, or PM2.5, only a few stations look at large particulate, better known as dust, or PM10, particles up to 10 microns in diameter. Kelly’s project, called Community Resilience through Engaging, Actionable, Timely, high-rEsolution Air Quality Information, or CREATE-AQI, is funded through NSF’s Civic Innovation Challenge program. Participating are several agencies, including the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, the Utah Athletic Trainers’ Association, the Utah High School Activities Association, the Utah Division of Air Quality and the Utah State Board of Education. “Being able to collaborate with the university and for them to be able to provide that research, we can then provide the health education and the health messaging, and also the connection with community partners and stakeholders to actually do something to help Utahans protect their health from hazardous pollutants in the air,” said Alejandra Maldonado, a toxicologist with the Department of Health and Human Services. With its mountain ranges and valleys, Utah’s “complex” terrain makes air-quality forecasting a highly localized matter, hence the need for a far-flung network of monitors. “Air quality in one valley can be very different from air quality in another valley or up high,” Kelly said. “People don’t quite understand dust that well. We know there are hotspots that produce dust on the lake, but where’s that going? We have very few regulatory PM10 monitors right now.” Kelly’s interdisciplinary team includes Heather Holmes and Pierre-Emmanuel Gaillardon of the College of Engineering; Ross Whitaker, professor in the Kahlert School of Computing; Derek Mallia, research assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences; and Sara Yeo, associate professor in the Department of Communication. Airborne dust, rising from dried lakebeds, gravel operations, construction activities and feedlots, is becoming a growing air quality challenge in Utah, according to Kelly, a professor of chemical engineering who served for eight years on the Utah Air Quality Board. Unless Great Salt Lake’s water levels rebound, its exposed lakebed is expected to become a major source of dust pollution for Salt Lake City. Yet the Utah Department of Environmental Quality does not post PM10 levels as it does in real time with other harmful pollutants, such as ozone, PM2.5 and nitrogen oxides, which are measured at its monitoring stations. Meanwhile blowing dust threatens public health and roadway safety, as painfully demonstrated two years ago after a 22-car pileup on Interstate 15 left eight dead in Utah’s Millard County. To better understand Utah’s dust problem, Kelly’s team plans to install up to 50 monitors on athletic fields around the state. There are three technological legs supporting the project. One is improved forecasting, making the forecasts automated, taking the people out of it so you can expand the forecast to the entire state of Utah. Then there’s the sensing leg, taking low-cost air quality measurements. The outdoor devices, which record both PM2.5 and 10, cost $1,000 to $1,500 each to deploy and connect to the cloud, versus the $40,000 its costs to equip a regulatory-grade station. The third leg is integrating the measurements with other data sources to produce the forecasts in easy-to-understand formats using visualization and maps. Kelly’s lab acquires the monitoring equipment off the shelf and evaluates low-cost devices for use in the project. Devices that pass muster will be carefully calibrated to ensure accuracy and deployed into the field with a cellular hookup so they can transmit their measurements to a cloud database. With sensors deployed at dozens of athletic fields and schools, CREATE-AQI’s system will integrate existing meteorological, dust, wildfire smoke and air-quality forecasting models to automatically generate high spatial resolution air quality forecasts. “Our long-term vision is you could put these out and warn people that there’s a problem and before tragedy happens. The goal is to put out sensors that are capable of measuring both PM2.5 and PM10, or dust. And to do that cost effectively to get a better understanding of where dust from the Great Salt Lake is hitting and affecting people.,” Kelly said. “And also on a local level like gravel operations and other types of things that might be affecting community members. And the nice thing about dust is that it’s more local and there are things that you can do to address it.”
Protecting Kids From Air Pollution – U of U Researchers Have Million-Dollar Idea
SOURCE: https://www.price.utah.edu/2023/09/26/university-of-utah-researchers-have-a-million-dollar-idea-to-protect-kids-from-air-pollution Utah’s striking summer sunsets, with their fiery oranges and reds, can easily take the breath away. Unfortunately, their cause — wildfire smoke and windblown dust events — make that reaction not so much a figure of speech but a dangerous reality. Over 40% of Americans live in areas with unhealthy levels of outdoor air pollution. Utah’s combination of complex terrain, smog, inversions, proximity to western wildfires, and desert dust makes it a hotspot for poor air quality, and in turn difficult to accurately assess and address. The bad air’s health hazards are quite clear however, especially in children and student athletes. A University of Utah team, led by Kerry Kelly, associate professor of chemical engineering in the U’s John and Marcia Price College of Engineering, has been researching and developing ways to mitigate and monitor Utah’s air quality on a neighborhood level. Now, after winning the million-dollar stage 2 National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Civic Innovation Challenge they’re set to implement a new tool to help the state cope with air pollution. Kerry’s collaborators at the U include Heather Holmes, associate professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Ross Whitaker, professor in the Kahlert School of Computing, Derek Malia, research assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric Science, and Sara Yeo, associate professor in the Department of Communications. Given the civic nature of the project, the team has also engaged a number of governmental and community partners, including Jesse Joseph, Asthma Program Coordinator, Alejandra Maldonado, Health Hazards Assessment Team Manager, and Nichole Shepard, Asthma & Healthy Aging Program Manager, in Utah’s Department of Health and Human Services; Lisa Walker, Licensed Athletic Trainer, Springville High School; Brenan Jackson, assistant director of the Utah High School Activities Association; and Nancy Daher, an air quality scientist at the Utah Department of Environmental Quality. The Civic Innovation Challenge is a national competition that seeks to make significant impacts on communities’ natural disaster resilience via community-university partnerships. Kelly’s team, “Community Resilience through Engaging, Actionable, Timely, high-rEsolution Air Quality Information” (CREATE-AQI) was one of 50 groups to receive a $50,000 planning grant in stage one. They now are among the 20 groups receiving the full million-dollar award. Their plan leverages the group’s extensive experience in air quality sensors and data analysis to expand the capabilities and reach of the University of Utah’s air quality sensing infrastructure. Improving on Utah’s current forecasting framework, the project will add dust detection and become much more automated. With cost effective sensors deployed at athletic fields and schools, CREATE-AQI’s system will integrate existing meteorological, dust, wildfire smoke, and air-quality forecasting models to automatically generate high spatial resolution air quality forecasts. This will give decision makers, such as preK-12 administrators and the Utah High School Activities Association, real time, local data that could prevent children’s exposure to hazardous levels of particle pollution. The grant money will also go towards understanding the most effective way to craft and deliver actionable, science-based messages about potential air quality hazards.
Air Quality Series: Exploring the Next Generation of Air Quality Sensors
September 5th, 2023 Article Source: US Ignite The US Ignite Air Quality Working Group meets monthly to discuss what they are learning. The last blog post shared ideas for using the information obtained through air quality monitoring. In addition, the working group’s feedback has also helped companies create a second generation of air quality sensors that are more modular, easier to deploy, offer a cellular communication option, and report the broader range of readings required by climate-change-induced wildfires. The new generation of sensors can read greater pollution ranges, run on batteries, be placed almost anywhere (thanks to wireless communication over 5G, NBIoT, LoRaWAN, community WiFi, etc.), and be affordable. With a modular approach, communities can overcome the barriers to entry by deploying arrays of sensors on a limited budget. This allows them to add sensing capabilities such as ozone and NOx (oxides of nitrogen) at any time in the future, as funding becomes available or project requirements change. Key Recommendations The advancements in sensors empower communities to make data-driven decisions and take proactive steps to reduce their exposure to pollution events. Companies like TELLUS are simplifying the delivery of air quality data to communities through visualizations, pollution event animations, and heat-mapped models, making it easy for anyone to interpret the severity of poor air quality events. The Air Quality Working Group recommends that communities implementing localized maps of air pollution should: Review the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for applicability. Pay attention to the EPA “big 2” – PM2.5 and Ozone (O3) – particularly relevant for urban areas. Consider the elevation. Understand that PM2.5 particles tend to collect in lower elevation regions, and communities with significant variations in elevation may require a higher number of sensors to capture a comprehensive and accurate picture of the air quality. Measure air quality around transportation corridors. These measurements can help build responses to transportation-produced pollution such as NO2, SO2, and SOX in addition to PM2.5. Measure allergens such as pollen (often sensed as PM10) in addition to PM2.5 in residential areas; the type of allergen may also make a difference. Some specific pollen sensors use cameras and image recognition to look at pollen captured on sticky tape to determine specific pollen sources. Deploy appropriate measures. If the area is subject to dust storms, PM10 will give a more accurate indication of dust than PM2.5 sensors. Consider how the air quality sensors will be powered and communicate. Is there public WiFi? Can they be hard-wired together with public safety devices? Is there a local LoRaWAN network with range and capacity? Cellular is usually the most effective and has the most universal reach, but it is the costliest. Think about sensor maintenance. Pollen sensors, especially those identifying the pollen type, have short lives and need parts replaced periodically. Sensors for highly reactive gasses also have limited lifetimes and may require frequent replacements. The higher the level of the polluting chemical, the faster the sensor will age. Consider modularly replaceable sensors for permanent installations. Use indoor sensors for comparisons. Indoor pollution is often worse than outdoor pollution. Consider indoor measurements in public areas (e.g., schools and libraries) and compare them against outdoor sensors outside of the same building. Be aware of the movement of pollutants. The wind moves pollution. The Weather Underground and other groups will give you access to citizen-operated weather stations in your community (or install some of your own). The local pollution microclimate and warnings require an understanding of the dynamics of pollution migration. Measure immediately downwind from construction efforts and consider making construction permits dependent upon installing city-monitored air quality stations at the construction perimeter. Connect with others. Connect with air quality professionals (usually within a state or local office of Environmental Quality) who may have specific requests and will usually be involved in formulating any additional measurement or mitigation measures. Also, look for ways to connect with others working on air quality monitoring. You can reach out to communities@us-ignite.org to learn more about and join our Air Quality Working Group. View of the Washington Monument peering through the haze, as seen from 16th Street leading toward the White House. Photo by Erin Hill. Let’s Talk Funding Next The exciting new technologies for sensing, communication, and analysis, combined with a growing public concern about air quality, offer smart and connected communities a compelling opportunity to take ownership of this critical problem and find solutions. In the next blog post, we will provide information on how to find the funding to support a community-based air quality monitoring project.
When the air outside is bad, is it still clean inside?
Like many metropolitan areas, Salt Lake City is no stranger to air quality issues caused by industrial and vehicle emissions. The city’s bowl-like topography can trap stagnant air causing inversions during the long winter months, not to mention the impact on air quality during wildfire season. But what happens to the indoor air when the air quality outside is poor? Understanding that pollution poses multiple risks to human health and the environment, clean indoor air is an essential maintenance component of the University of Utah’s facilities infrastructure. To better understand what happens to the indoor air when the air quality outside is poor, the U Facilities’ SEED2SOIL program awarded research grants for two projects to establish an on-campus baseline for indoor and outdoor air quality. The study “Networked Indoor Air Quality Measurements at the University of Utah,” led by Dr. Kerry Kelly and Dr. Darrah Sleeth, is monitoring 20 buildings of varied ages and locations across campus. They have placed AirU sensors to collect data between August 2022 and January 2024 to measure temperatures, relative humidity, PM2.5 and CO2 concentrations. The data collected by sensors will monitor daily and seasonal fluctuations in indoor air quality, indicating whether poor outdoor air conditions affect indoor air quality under different heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (HVAC) for each monitored building. A cloud-based, real-time data dashboard assists with quickly identifying concerns and evaluating changes made to a building’s HVAC system. The project, “Quantifying the Impact of Outdoor Air Pollution on Indoor Air Quality at University of Utah Buildings,” led by Dr. Daniel Mendoza and Dr. Tabitha Benney, directly measures indoor air quality with research-grade (more sensitive) sensors. The project aims to understand the effects of Salt Lake City’s inversions, commuting, and other factors of outside air pollution that might affect indoor air quality. The team is analyzing pollution infiltration patterns between August 2022 and October 2023 to evaluate outdoor weather events such as inversions, peak commuting periods, and wildfires. Air is being monitored at the William Browning Building, Frederick Albert Sutton Building, and the Health Sciences Education Building using two instrument packages containing PM2.5, ozone, and black carbon sensors. For each selected site, one sensor package has been installed outside the study building and one inside the building. With the final data, ventilation and filtration strategies for buildings across campus will be reviewed to improve the health of our occupants while maximizing energy efficiency. Potential strategies include smart technologies or automation tools that can trigger enhanced ventilation when thresholds are met, improvements for building winterization, tips for augmented building filtration during an outdoor air quality event, and increased venting before and after commuting hours for facilities located close to roadways to avoid bringing heavily polluted air inside. This research will provide an operational framework for air quality improvement campus-wide and within our broader urban community for years to come.
Smart Cities Awards
Smart Cities catalyze the digital transformation of urban ecosystems to produce systemic environmental, financial, and social outcomes. Smart Cities are, by definition, focused on using emerging technologies and innovation to make cities more livable, and offer new services and economic opportunities. The cities and communities in North America have made significant strides in Smart Cities by leveraging technology and aligning services with the needs and expectations of residents. To recognize outstanding Smart Cities projects, IDC launched its Smart City North America Awards (SCNAA). Now in its sixth year, the 2023 awards recognize the progress North American municipalities have made and also provide a forum for sharing best practices to help accelerate Smart City development in the region. Winners will be honored at Smart Cities Connect being held May 16 – 18 at the Denver Convention Center. Smart Cities Connect Conference and Expo offers the most comprehensive conference, exposition and accelerator of smart city innovation in North America. To learn more about the event visit https://spring.smartcitiesconnect.org/. 2023 Winners Administration (e.g. Back Office, Digital Legislating)Government for the People Through Digital Engagement – Corona, CA The City of Corona partnered with Qualtrics, ZenCity and Salesforce to redefine community engagement. Using powerful AI based analytics and digital toolsets the City has been able to better reach the silent majority passively and actively to complete the communication loop with citizens. Using data we have be able to create customer journeys, so that the City can reach out to citizens based on their interests, demographic information, and residential location concerning upcoming events, classes, or activities. The technology has allowed us to determine better what Citizen interests are and help tailor activities, services, and funding to help citizens feel a sense of community in what the City provides. Civic Engagement(e.g Participatory budgeting, City Portals, 311 apps)Smart Water Conservation Application – Scottsdale, AZ Scottsdale Water Conservation Office’s Smart Water Conservation Application, an automated program that identifies landscaping to enhance water conservation efforts. By highlighting areas on a map, the tool can classify landscape materials. Utilizing the application has allowed staff to quickly assess a site and its composition – allowing for individualized water budgets that can ultimately save money and conserve water. With the launch of the Application, Scottsdale builds on 40-plus years of innovative water stewardship. We’ve collaborated with ASU and AWS to harness the power of technology to create a more accurate/timely water budget to identify and capture opportunities to reduce water use. Before the Application, the Office manually merged water/land use information. The time-consuming process lacked standardization and was inconsistent. The Application automates classification/calculation by leveraging AI, ML, and data analytics to consolidate data sets and GIS layers. It can identify landscaping, calculating ground cover footage, tree canopy, and water surface area. Now staff quickly generate water budgets for large landscapes in the office and provide guidance by phone, reducing the need for onsite inspections. This process increases accuracy of classification, shortens response time, and reduces the administrative processes, allowing for a proactive approach to water conservation outreach. Data-Driven Policing (e.g. Real-time Crime Centers, Officer Wearables, Video Analytics)San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office – San Mateo County, CA Law enforcement agencies have started adapting and integrating digital technologies to enhance public safety initiatives. Many agencies are looking towards applying analytics to large amounts of data, better integrating technology into their decision-making processes, and optimizing processes to improve efficiency and public trust. San Mateo County, located in Northern California, is home to over 700,000 residents and around 20,000 businesses. The mission of the county Sheriff’s Office is to protect lives and property while providing the highest level of professional law enforcement and correctional services in the nation. The Sheriff’s Office faced several challenges in achieving their goal of analytics-powered law enforcement. The Sheriff’s Office used C3 AI Law Enforcement to integrate traditionally disparate data, correlate and consolidate more than 100,000 identities, and significantly reduce the manual effort and time needed for case investigations and reporting, from hours to minutes. Following the successful initial configuration, C3 AI and the Sheriff’s Office are growing their partnership to expand the data sources, increase agency-wide collaboration, and further automate existing manual reporting. Next-Generation Emergency Services (e.g. Next Gen 911, Early Warning Systems) TIE City of Syracuse Department of Public Works – Syracuse, NY The City of Syracuse relies on the Samsara Connected Operations platform to streamline its snow operations, helping the department to maximize productivity and improve communication with the public. * Real-time visibility into the location and status of snowplows enables the Department of Public Works (DPW) team to track service coverage and optimize routes using advanced cloud-based technology, increasing operational efficiency. *Auto-uploaded still images and on-demand video retrieval provide remote visibility into road conditions and on-road incidents, improving route planning and helping the DPW investigate citizen concerns faster and more accurately. *Seamless API integration with Esri makes it possible for the DPW to share a publicly accessible map of service coverage with residents, increasing transparency and leading to a 30% decrease in citizen calls about snow plow service. Enabling Enhanced Interoperability for First Responders – Irving, TX This initiative falls under our Safety pillar of our Smart Cities Initiatives of Enhanced Emergency Response. This pillars goal is to Enhance emergency responses to minimize the threat to life and property. Our three pillars are Services, Safety, and Sustainability. The goal of our Smart Cities pillars called “Irving Connects” focuses on using data and technology to improve government efficiency, bolster economic development, and enhance overall quality of life in Irving. This initiative addresses future opportunities as data becomes more readily available and technology continues to advance. Irving Connects allows the city to focus on using data and technology to address pressing challenges associated with the three focus areas identified by the city. Digital Equity and Accessibility (e.g. Public WiFi, Accessibility Services)Phoenix Sky Harbor Accessibility Innovations for Visually and Hearing Impaired – Phoenix, AZ PHX has added a new service to support customers who are blind or have low vision as they travel.
Air Quality Awareness Week
Air Quality Awareness Week (AQAW) 2023 is May 1-5. EPA is partnering with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Weather Service, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Forest Service, U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Department of Energy, and U.S. Department of State, as well as state, local, and tribal agencies to share information with the public about efforts to protect and improve air quality. This week also includes World Asthma Day on Tuesday, May 2nd. The theme for this year is, “Working Together for Clean Air”. Air Quality Awareness Week highlights resources that increase air quality awareness and to encourage people to take action and incorporate air quality knowledge into their daily living. Air Quality Awareness Week also provides an opportunity for people to learn about what causes poor air quality and how people can prepare for and respond to events and environments with poor air quality – not just during the month of May, but year-round!
Monitoring the Risks of Salt Lake Valley’s Dust
On a recent evening in northern Utah, engineer Kerry Kelly was driving to an event when a dust cloud swept across the highway, obscuring her view. “This is a road with a 50-mile-per-hour speed limit and visibility dropped to zero,” she says. “There was no forecast that was going to happen, no warning.” Fortunately, she avoided an accident, but others have not been so lucky. A similar dust event in July 2021 caused a 22-vehicle pileup in southwestern Utah, killing eight people. Airborne dust is a type of “particulate matter” – a general term for microscopic solid and liquid droplets that might contain hundreds of different chemicals. It is generated from many sources, explains Kelly, associate professor of chemical engineering at the University of Utah and a developer of low-cost tools that measure pollution exposure. Some common culprits of airborne dust include mines and quarries, unpaved roads, agricultural activities, construction sites and parched land. Those particles, while larger than the kind resulting from combustion (such as wildfires), can still be inhaled and drawn deep into the respiratory system. Clouds of dust can irritate eyes, noses and mouths, making it tough for anyone to breathe, but especially those with asthma or other respiratory conditions. As an unfortunate result of its bowl-like topography, northern Utah is periodically plagued by some of the worst air quality in the nation — and sometimes the world, says Kelly, who served for eight years on Utah’s Air Quality Board, and currently sits on the State Air Quality Policy Advisory Board (providing guidance to the state legislature). The Salt Lake Valley is a scooped-out stretch of land that lies below the 12,000-foot Wasatch Range, where in winter temperature inversions (that’s warm air atop cold air) trap pollution close to the ground. And in recent decades, “climate change and growing population are exacerbating our region’s degraded air quality,” says Kelly, with hotter, drier conditions causing widespread drought and, on windy days, airborne dust to blanket everything in its path. A half-dozen serious dust events earlier this year – including one that caused burning eyes in Salt Lake City (population: 2.5 million) alarmed residents and local air quality experts. It “was just unheard of, like wow, something has really changed,” Kelly says. That’s why Kelly’s recent work focuses on developing new sensor technology to figure out where dust is coming from, and how it moves. While airborne dust is easy to see during such an event, many dust-prone areas of the United States lack any monitoring for larger-sized particulate pollution. That’s in part due to a lack of robust regulation in rural areas which, says Kelly, impacts “a lot of underserved and underrepresented communities.” There’s also a tremendous need for better, more affordable air quality sensors, as current low-cost ones are incapable of capturing the large particles that comprise airborne dust. Kelly is also the co-founder of Tellus Networked Air Quality Sensors, a startup that has received $150,000 in angel investor funding. There, she and colleagues at the University of Utah are now focused on retrofitting a pre-existing air quality sensor, called AirU, with a more powerful optical particle counter. The affordable add-on can capture hefty particles of airborne dust and give researchers an idea of how much of it there is, where it’s coming from, and how big of a health hazard it may be. Kelly and her team test-drove the new equipment during the major dust storms last spring and were pleased with how it measured up against much pricier air monitors. There is new urgency for communities to be able to measure and track airborne dust. “Now that our Great Salt Lake is drying, the dust is a big concern to us,” says Kelly. This past summer, the lake reached its lowest level since record keeping began 175 years ago. A strain on water resources has disrupted the delicate hydrological system that used to refuel the lake with spring runoff from nearby mountains. Of particular concern is the now-exposed lakebed, whose soil contains arsenic, lead and other dangerous heavy metals from past mining activity. While much of the soil remains locked in a thick crust, the dust is already a significant issue, says Kelly, and wind erosion will continue to worsen the problem. Being able to detect airborne dust that poses danger to public health is critical for Utah and beyond, says Kelly, where her new sensor technology could “have wide-reaching benefits.”
EPA funds more sensors to address Chattanooga air quality concerns
A year after installing about 30 air quality sensors at local schools and community centers, the Chattanooga collaborative behind the pollution detection program learned Thursday it is getting a federal grant to more than triple the number of air sensors to expand the program across Hamilton County. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is awarding $491,171 to the Enterprise Center in Chattanooga for its Chattanooga Leveling Environmental Equity Across Neighborhoods project. The project will add another 130 of the air quality sensors to provide even more real-time, localized data on air particulates and other pollutants to help improve the visibility of air pollution information. Chattanooga was the only Tennessee project included in 132 monitoring programs picked to receive the funding as part of a $53.4 million nationwide initiative to enhance air quality monitoring in underserved and more polluted cities. “These grants will give communities the tools they need to better understand air quality challenges in their neighborhoods,” EPA Regional Administrator Daniel Blackman said in an announcement of the grant recipients. “EPA’s investment in ARP (American Rescue Plan) funding will not only advance the agency’s mobile air monitoring labs and air sensor loan programs but improve the agency’s ability to support communities in need of short-term monitoring and air quality information.” Blackman said the new sensors will provide more granular understanding of air quality across Hamilton County communities that routinely rank at the bottom statewide for asthma, chronic illnesses and hospitalization. Chattanooga was also chosen because of EPB’s communitywide fiber optic network, which allows faster internet service for connections to all of the sensors, which are monitored regularly through the Chattanooga Smart Community Collaborative. The collaboration includes the Enterprise Center, UTC’s Center for Urban Informatics and Progress, EPB and Hamilton County schools. Live data visualization, health information and educational resources will be hosted publicly for residents, and sensor data will be imported into repositories, including Chattanooga’s Open Data Portal for access by citizens, researchers and public health agencies. “As a smart community, Chattanooga relies on data,” Geoff Milliner, chief operating officer for the Enterprise Center, said in a telephone interview Thursday. “Better, more granular data can result in better outcomes, especially when it comes to the environment.” Chattanooga is one of only four cities in a collaborative US Ignite project, funded by the National Science Foundation. The project, begun by researchers at the University of Utah, is bringing a network of approximately 50 fine particulate matter air quality sensors online, creating a live map of air quality conditions across the city for local researchers, citizen scientists, students and other curious residents to utilize. The project began as an effort to better understand the relationship between air pollution and incidence rates of COVID-19. Milliner said the first sensors were tested in early 2021, and the initial network of sensors was operational in November 2021.