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Championing Environmental Awareness in Communities Through Air Sensor Loan Programs
Citation:
Freed, R., I. Young, C. Duboiski, S. Waldo, S. Batka, M. Gavin, A. Clements, AND R. Duvall. Championing Environmental Awareness in Communities Through Air Sensor Loan Programs. 2022 Air Sensors International Conference, Pasadena, CA, May 11 - 13, 2022.
Impact/Purpose:
New, lower-cost air sensors have become available to the public who are using the devices to learn more about air quality in their communities. As part of a Regional, State, Tribal Research Innovation Projects (RSTIP) with EPA Regions 5, 9, and 10, air sensor loan programs were developed in partnership with urban and rural libraries, a living museum, and tribes. As part of the programs, particulate matter air sensors can be checked out by the public similar to checking out a book. These loan programs promote citizen science/community involvement in research while simultaneously advancing EPA’s goals of collaborating with impacted stakeholders and providing ways for the public to engage in research studies. Groups that would be interested or could apply the results from this research include public libraries, museums, schools, communities, state/local/tribal air agencies, EPA Regional Offices, and other federal agencies.
Description:
Air sensors are exploratory and educational tools for communities. In recent years, the public has increasingly turned to these technologies to measure air quality. In response, U.S. EPA established pilot air sensor loan programs to better facilitate access to sensors and provide resources necessary for operating them. The loan programs include a living museum [The Morton Arboretum (IL)], Tribal Partners [Heritage University on the Yakama Reservation (WA), the Nez Perce Tribe (ID), and the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP)], and national, urban, and rural libraries [Los Angeles Public Library System (CA), Evansville-Vanderburgh Library (IN), L’Anse Public Library (MI), Bayliss Library/Superior District (MI), and the Nez Perce Tribal Community libraries (ID)]. These programs offer community members an opportunity to borrow particulate matter (PM) sensors (AirBeam2 and/or PurpleAir) to collect PM measurements to learn about local air quality and pollution sources or to collect data to support community science projects. As part of the loan programs, five lesson plans were developed to guide participants through investigations of (1) outdoor air, (2) indoor air, (3) personal exposure, (4) vegetative barriers, and (5) smoke. These interactive lesson plans were shared with librarians and tribal air quality and educational professionals who plan to use the materials in educational programming with communities. The materials will also be posted to EPA’s Air Sensor Toolbox webpage (https://www.epa.gov/air-sensor-toolbox/educational-resources-related-air-sensor-technology) for anyone to use. An overview of these innovative, EPA-supported loan programs will be discussed, along with lessons learned.