I’m a science journalist working on a story for The New Republic about air quality and wildfire smoke, with a focus on equity, and how some areas/places have worse quality than others and have a harder time avoiding it. I’m based in NYC where there is an emerging luxury clean air market in high end rentals, and the piece will be about those who can’t afford such filtration systems. I’m hoping to chat with people who have experienced lower quality air, and are concerned about their ongoing ability to mitigate it. If this is you, please reach out at shaylalovewrites@gmail.com
@shaylalove - I don’t know about NYC … but I think this is a problem everywhere. In Columbus Ohio for example … places in poverty score higher on the pollution scale. The southern part (south of I70) and parts of town east of I71 are less affluent than the northern parts. You can see this on the air quality map. There’s a study being done right now that may give you more scientific data. See https://www.morpc.org/programs-services/neighborhood-air-quality-monitoring-program/
We have terrible air here at my house sometimes so I just today put up a sensor. I am outside the study area by zip code, though just (by 1000 to 2000 feet) east of me and west of me and north of me are study areas. I named my sensor similar to those in the study hoping they will include mine. I guess to be scientific you have to draw the line somewhere. My sensor will be helpful for us to know when it’s safe to go outside and to not allow the dogs to stay out too long. I also want to correlate the indoor air quality readings with those outside.
Hope the MORPC study can be shared with you … wondering if that will prove the correlation to poverty and where pollution generating plants are allowed to continue.