During the past decade, low cost air sensors have been developed that can be used to measure air pollution levels. This has made it possible for members of the public for the first time, to do their own air quality monitoring, independent of government monitoring networks spread across wide areas. It has become increasingly common for community groups and others concerned about air quality to assess pollution in their neighborhoods.
However, low cost sensors are not as reliable, accurate, or precise as high-cost agency monitors. Therefore, while agencies have provided information and assistance to sensor users, they are often reluctant to consider or act on that data. Finding ways to use air sensor data to inform action by environmental agencies is a critical challenge for participatory science in the field of air quality.
Nationwide Efforts
There is no generally accepted model for data-gathering by members of the public on air quality.
Approaches that are being used take a wide range of forms:
- EPA uses data from private sensors to measure smoke from wildfires, and publishes that data as part of its online air quality platform. Significantly, wildfire smoke is not regulated, allowing the use of data that is less precise than the one typically required by enforcement agencies.
- California and New York have passed laws calling for community air monitoring, to complement traditional agency systems that generally monitor across wide areas, not at the neighborhood level. Read more about the California and New York laws.
- Some agencies, like the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, put data from private air sensors on their air quality websites, after adjusting it to address concerns about accuracy.
- Agencies also help the public calibrate their sensors relative to highly accurate official monitors (as in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina).
- Agencies use apps to make it possible for individuals to report conditions of concern, ranging from odors to excessive engine idling and misuse of pesticides.
- Additional examples of citizen science programs that measure air quality can be found on ELI’s Participatory Science Database.