It’s Friday, October 1, and Sacramento is breaking new ground with its air pollution monitoring system.
Sacramento, California, is spending $500,000 to implement one of the most extensive air quality monitoring systems in the country. The city will deploy 100 new air quality monitors, which will give the city’s air quality agency a block-by-block breakdown of air pollution for the first time. The Sacramento City Council approved the plan on September 21.
The new monitors will primarily be placed in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color that are disproportionately impacted by air pollution and respiratory ailments — but have historically been neglected by the city’s air quality monitoring program.
As wildfires become more intense and hot days become more frequent in the area, the block-by-block data could be used by school districts to determine whether to keep students home, Sacramento City Councilmember Eric Guerra told the Sacramento Bee. The program will also fund a new community outreach program to give affected residents information about how to protect their health.
“We consistently have neighborhoods with poorer health, poorer air, higher healthcare costs,” Guerra told the Sacramento Bee. “Those kinds of issues have a trickle-down effect on the economics and health of our community.”
The Smog
Need-to-know basis
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