Thursday, June 26, 2025
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Terms & Conditions
Environmental Magazine
Advertisement
  • Home
  • News
  • Climate Change
  • Energy
  • Recycling
  • Air
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Water
No Result
View All Result
Environmental Magazine
  • Home
  • News
  • Climate Change
  • Energy
  • Recycling
  • Air
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Water
No Result
View All Result
Environmental Magazine
No Result
View All Result
Home Air

US air pollution monitoring network has gaps in coverage

October 21, 2024
in Air
A A

The lack of air-quality monitoring capabilities across the US affects the health of millions of people and disproportionately impacts minority and low socioeconomic-status communities, say researchers in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters. Motivated by a new US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standard for air pollution, the team employed a model for fine-scale air pollution mapping using real-world data, and it indicates there is an urgent need to address gaps in the agency’s monitoring network.

“The national air pollution monitoring network aims to act as an umbrella to protect all Americans,” says lead author Yuzhou Wang. “But we saw that unfortunately, millions of people, especially underrecognized populations, will not receive adequate protection from the monitors. Thus, they will receive fewer benefits from the more stringent standard.”

Most of the harmful effects from outdoor air pollution in the US are linked to inhalation of fine particulate matter (PM). These suspended particles, like soot or liquid aerosol droplets, are smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, garnering the designation PM2.5. In February 2024, to better protect Americans from health burdens caused by inhaling particles, the EPA adopted a more stringent standard for PM2.5.The EPA tracks compliance with air pollution standards through a network of about 1,000 costly and highly accurate monitoring stations placed in cities and towns nationwide. Prior research shows that people of color and people with low socioeconomic status living in the US are disproportionately affected by outdoor PM2.5 exposure. However, these populations have fewer monitoring stations than other areas to measure air pollutants, meaning they may not be fully protected by the tighter air pollution standards.

While the EPA is now modifying the national air pollution monitoring network to account for environmental justice, the adequacy of this network to correctly identify areas that do not meet the new air pollution standards has not been thoroughly investigated. So, researchers led by Joshua Apte used a statistical model to identify gaps in the monitoring network’s coverage across the continental U.S. The model is based on observations and geographic variables, called an empirical model, and it identifies potential areas with PM2.5 levels that exceed the agency’s new lower standard.

To assess the monitoring gaps, Apte and colleagues compared PM2.5 levels from 2017 to 2019 at both monitored and unmonitored locations, using PM2.5 level predictions from the U.S. Center for Air, Climate, and Energy Solutions and population data from the 2020 U.S. Census. Their findings revealed that the network misses pollution hotspots and underestimates exposure disparities, which highlights the need for enhanced monitoring in historically underrecognized communities. Overall, they find that:

  • About 44% of highly populated metro areas in the U.S., which affect about 20 million people, have inadequate monitoring networks to comply with new EPA air quality standards.
  • PM2.5 hotspots identified with monitoring data and predicted by the model have significantly higher percentages of people of color and people with low socioeconomic status compared to the overall population.
  • Around 2.8 million people live in PM2.5 hotspots that are not captured by the air monitoring network.

“Fortunately, even adding 10 monitors in the right places could make a big difference in correctly identifying which cities are breathing unhealthy air,” says Apte. However, he adds that “our network of about 1,000 official regulatory air monitors is generally not well-suited for capturing exposure disparities in every city in the country. There are just too few monitors to capture every hotspot.”

The team identified metro locations to add new air pollution monitors across the U.S. that could help identify large populations that currently breathe air more polluted than the EPA’s new standards. The metro areas are in Texas, Ohio, California, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Missouri and Idaho.

The authors acknowledge funding from Google.org.

ShareTweetSharePinSendShare

Related Articles

Air

Net zero planning platform to unlock investment in the West of England

June 25, 2025
Air

New milestone for efficient carbon capture technology

June 25, 2025
Air

Councils’ race to net zero is slow according to scoreboards produced by non-profit group

June 17, 2025
Air

Aged desert dust particles provide new form of SOAs, says study

June 13, 2025
Air

York is meeting national air pollution targets for the first time

June 4, 2025
Air

Research brings clarity to simulating PM nanoparticle movement

May 28, 2025

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recommended

Installed CCS capacity on track to double

October 15, 2024

The EPA Cleaned Up the ‘Valley of the Drums’ Outside Louisville 45 Years Ago. Why Did it Leave the ‘Gully of the Drums’ Behind?

April 3, 2024

Don't miss it

Fossil Fuels

Texas Legislature Increases Well Plugging Budget as Backlog Grows

June 25, 2025
News

Microplastics are everywhere, but our methods to track them are all over the place

June 25, 2025
News

Leeds EfW facility will supply around 390 GWh per year of homegrown power to the region

June 24, 2025
Fossil Fuels

As GOP Tries to Pass Tax Bill, Senate Includes Billions in Benefits for Oil Industry

June 23, 2025
Energy

Figuring Out a Battery Storage System to Fit New York’s Wind and Solar Ambitions Has Not Been Easy

June 23, 2025
Activism

In California, a Push to Decommission Gas Lines in Low-Income Neighborhoods Moves Forward

June 22, 2025
Environmental Magazine

Environmental Magazine, Latest News, Opinions, Analysis Environmental Magazine. Follow us for more news about Enviroment and climate change from all around the world.

Learn more

Sections

  • Activism
  • Air
  • Climate Change
  • Energy
  • Fossil Fuels
  • News
  • Uncategorized
  • Water

Topics

Activism Air Climate Change Energy Fossil Fuels News Uncategorized Water

Recent News

Texas Legislature Increases Well Plugging Budget as Backlog Grows

June 25, 2025

Net zero planning platform to unlock investment in the West of England

June 25, 2025

© 2023 Environmental Magazine. All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Climate Change
  • Energy
  • Recycling
  • Air
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Water

© 2023 Environmental Magazine. All rights reserved.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.