Each vehicle beams data on greenhouse gases and toxins like benzene, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide to servers in California to be analyzed by the air-quality monitoring company Aclima.
At first glance, Ramses Diaz’s car seems like any other driving through New York City. Then I spot the phrase, “I measure air quality,” on the left door. Inside, a tablet attached to the dashboard displays a map of New York City, and two big boxes in the trunk beam huge quantities of data back to servers in California. I step inside with Diaz and off we go to track air quality in Brooklyn.
In July, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the launch of a statewide air quality and greenhouse gas mobile monitoring initiative. The goal is to measure pollution levels in 10 regions: Niagara Falls, the state’s Capital Region, the Bronx, Manhattan, Rochester, Syracuse, Mount Vernon, Brooklyn, Queens and Hempstead.
The project is one of the actions the state is taking to achieve the goals of New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which aims to cut emissions by 40 percent by 2030, said Adriana Espinoza, deputy commissioner for equity and justice at the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).
Over the course of a year, the California-based tech company Aclima will be collecting air quality data from a fleet of 21 modified Google Street View vehicles, each named after famous musicians. These cars will drive around all 10 areas, day in and day out. Ramses and I are currently in the Flash, for Grandmaster Flash, the hip-hop pioneer from the South Bronx.
Every second, a filter in the vehicle samples the air to detect the presence and concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5), nitrogen dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, methane, carbon dioxide, black carbon and benzene, among other pollutants. Then, the attached wireless network sends the data to the West Coast to be analyzed.
By the end of the year, the cars will have completed the designated routes at least 20 times. This is to account for changes in weather, congestion, industrial traffic and other atmospheric conditions that impact the quality of the air.
Diaz, 49, a photographer from Venezuela, became a driver because he needed to work. Yet, he said he feels a sense of purpose in his job. He knows the air is very polluted, “but you can’t see it,” he said. “If you have a child, you want to know the quality of the air because maybe he could have asthma, you know?”
In its 2020 Community Air Survey, the New York City Health Department found that since 2009, the city’s levels of fine particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and nitric oxide declined 43, 39 and 56 percent, respectively. In March, the Environmental Protection Agency reported that the emissions reductions have led to dramatic improvements in the quality of the air not just in New York, but across the United States.
“These air quality improvements have enabled many areas of the country to meet national air quality standards set to protect public health and the environment,” the agency said on its website.
But this is not true for every community.
“The pollution we’re struggling with now is more like hotspots,” said Eric Schaffer, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit based in Washington D.C. He explained that while the quality of the air is getting better overall, there are some communities and neighborhoods where the levels of pollution are more intense.
As Diaz drives across the Brooklyn Bridge, the day begins to clear. The blue sky looks clean—but the reality is more complicated. “Brooklyn is very polluted,” Diaz said.
When Arif Ullah, 50, thinks about his childhood in Queens, he remembers that he and most of his friends had asthma. “I thought it was normal, you know?” he said. “It wasn’t until later that I realized that it was because of exposure to air pollution.”
Now, Ullah works as a social and environmental justice advocate for the community organization South Bronx Unite. “Heart disease, obesity, diabetes, dementia. All of these diseases are connected to exposure to air pollution.”
Source: InsideClimateNews
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