A new interactive website launched on Tuesday to help residents track air quality in several Pioneer Valley communities, including Easthampton, Holyoke, Chicopee and Springfield.
In a statement about the launch of PVHealthyAir.org, Attorney General Maura Healey’s office said the website includes minute-by-minute information about environmental pollutants in individual neighborhoods and is designed “to help a region that has long been disproportionately impacted by environmental injustices, and consistently has among the highest rates of asthma in the country.”
The website is the result of a partnership among Healey’s office, the cities of Holyoke and Springfield, Yale University, Baystate Health and numerous community organizations and activism groups. It is a part of Healey’s Clean Air Initiative.
Healey’s office funded a network of 80 sensors in Springfield and others in Easthampton, Holyoke and Chicopee to measure fine particulate matter, ozone and other toxins in the air, saying these contaminants are connected to higher rates of respiratory problems, especially in minority communities, and contribute to COVID-19 transmission.
“The Pioneer Valley Healthy Air Network will provide community level data needed to understand and take action to address the alarmingly inequitable high rates of asthma,” Jessica Collins, executive director of the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts, said in a statement.
Sensors are located in volunteers’ homes, government buildings, health care offices and parks. Residents of the Pioneer Valley can host a sensor if they have access to an outdoor power outlet and WiFi.
The website shows the sensors as color-changing dots on a map of the region; a user can hover over each dot and see the current measurements of the Air Quality Index and fine particulate matter, as well as recommendations, such as, “It’s a great day to be active outside.” The map also shows wind speed and direction.
At around 1:45 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, the poorest air quality reading was in the Upper Hill neighborhood of Springfield — 43 on a 500-point scale with lower numbers representing better levels — while readings of 21 and 17 were captured in other areas of the city. Easthampton’s downtown sensor showed a reading of 8, the best level in the area at the time. The poorest fine particulate matter readings were in Springfield, as well.
Those numbers had all improved by 3:45 p.m. and the website showed continuing fluctuations.
“For decades, policy decisions have been made that unjustly forced historically marginalized communities in cities like Springfield to breathe polluted air and to suffer impacts to their health as a result,” Healey said in a statement. “This website together with our office’s Clean Air Initiative will provide families with resources and information to protect themselves from the serious health risks posed by air pollution.”
Gitte Venicx, CEO of the EarthWatch Institute, said the website “supports community members to make informed decisions on reducing their exposure and plan actions to improve air quality in the region.”
“The AG’s Environmental Protection Division will use the information to guide its enforcement work and will prioritize its investigations and cases in those communities that have been disproportionately burdened with environmental and other injustices for decades,” Healey’s office said.
Brian Steele can be reached at bsteele@gazettenet.com.