Research air quality

Planning and carrying out a community air quality study can seem daunting. Be reassured that many other community groups have planned and done air quality studies, and that the Public Lab community is here to support you. At any time, you can ask questions, start an issue brief with any amount of information you have, or start documenting your project, and gather input from other Public Lab members.

Getting ready

Here are some resources that might help you get started with a community air monitoring project.

Posts about gathering with community

See how other communities have investigated their local air

Many community groups have studied local air quality in their neighborhoods and shared their extensive knowledge and experiences in publicly-available written guides. @kgradow1 has compiled a handy short list of community air guides here, and explained the advantages and limitations of each guide. Much of the more general guidance on this page was collected from these community air guides.

A particularly comprehensive how-to guide is the Guidebook for Developing a Community Air Monitoring Network: Steps, Lessons, and Recommendations from the Imperial County Community Air Monitoring Project. It covers community engagement, choosing tools and software, determining monitoring sites, and analyzing data.

Deciding what to monitor

What pollutants might be in the air near you?

Considering common sources of air pollutants can help you determine which pollutants might be in your community.

General sources: the buttons below list some examples of human activities, industries, and natural sources. Click the buttons to see common air pollutants these sources use or produce.

Oil and gas operations, power plants

Manufacturing facilities

Construction and mining

Urban environments

Agricultural activity

Natural events: Wildfires, volcanoes

Sources near you: the activities listed below can help you learn about searching public databases to find out what industries and emissions sources are near you.

After you narrow down your pollutants of interest, you can read more about them and the range of methods to investigate the pollution below in the "Air pollutants and monitoring methods" section.

How can air pollutants impact your health?

You might choose a specific pollutant to monitor because you know it’s in your local air and you’re experiencing health impacts.

ToxFAQs by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in the US contains a large alphabetical list of compounds, how you might be exposed to each, and their potential health impacts.

Toxic City: Health Impacts of Chemicals Emitted in the South Durban Area: this guide by the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) refers to specific companies in the South Durban area of South Africa, but the industry types, emissions, and health impacts can be applicable to anywhere.

If there aren’t specific pollutants you’re looking for and you’re more interested in detecting what’s in the air, you can do broad spectrum sampling.

What are your study goals?

Determining what you ultimately want to do with air quality data will help guide the approach you take and what kind of data will best answer your questions.

Some example goals:

• Create community awareness of an air quality issue
• Identify pollution hotspots for more monitoring
• Share information on an air quality issue with media
• Submit data to a regulatory agency

In general, using data for regulatory or legal purposes will require certain methods to collect the data and meeting set data quality standards.

Posts about planning an environmental study

• Start an environmental monitoring study
• Strategizing around an air quality issue: this particular page is about frac sand but could be applied to other air quality issues
  
  

Air pollutants and monitoring methods

Based on your initial observations and research on what sources of air pollution are near you, you have an idea of which air pollutants you want to investigate. What methods are available to study them?

You might be able to use existing public databases to meet your study goals, or you might decide to collect your own air monitoring data. Below are resources for gathering your own data on air quality.

Overview of common approaches

For another way to view different air monitoring approaches, check out the box entitled, “What other kinds of community air monitoring are there?” on pg. 12 of the Guidebook for Developing a Community Air Monitoring Network. It outlines different approaches that vary in mobility and timeframes, including fenceline monitoring, grab sampling, personal monitoring, and mobile monitoring.

Gases

Air polluting gases and monitoring methods: on this wiki page we describe some main approaches to monitor gas-phase air pollutants, and then list common outdoor gaseous pollutants (e.g., volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides, ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen sulfide) and examples of tools to detect and measure them. Visit and edit the page to help grow this resource!

One of the tools listed for sampling gas-phase air pollutants that has a storied history in community campaigns is the Bucket Monitor. On the linked wiki page, you’ll find information on how people have been using the bucket monitor to advocate for change, plus updated resources on building and using a bucket monitor. You can also find a kit to build your own bucket monitor in the Public Lab store.

Particulate matter (PM)

Introduction to Particulate Matter: find community questions and research notes about particulate matter, plus a deep dive into different kinds and sizes of PM.

Collecting data on particulate matter: kicks off with key resources on strategizing your monitoring efforts to match with your community goals, then describes different monitoring methods including regulatory methods and Smoke School for communities.

Choosing a method for Particulate Matter Monitoring: goes deeper into different PM monitoring approaches (visual, filter-based, optical, passive) to help you choose the method right for you. For each approach, it describes advantages and disadvantages, when it might be useful, and example tools.

One of the more accessible tools for monitoring PM that also helps you understand how some sensors work is the Simple Air Sensor. Developed by Public Lab, it’s an open-source, optical sensor-based tool that signals changing PM levels in your air with a colored LED light.

Tools for mapping and viewing data

• Real-time Geospatial Data Viewer (RETIGO)
  • A tool by the US EPA to map and view your own sensor data
  • Question: Has anyone used EPA's RETIGO to upload air quality data?
    
    

Air quality subtopics

A collection of wiki pages on monitoring methods and approaches covering particulate matter and gases

Activities

Activities on Public Lab that have been tagged with air-quality will appear here

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