Enhancing Air Quality Awareness in West Virginia’s Black Communities: The Role of Local Monitoring and Advocacy
USACAMP is looking for air monitor hosts in the state
By Willie Dodson
Fine particulate matter, also known as PM 2.5, is an especially hazardous air pollutant that is associated with fossil fuel combustion, manufacturing, mining, transportation and agriculture. Exposure to high levels of PM 2.5 causes asthma attacks, pulmonary and respiratory conditions, and contributes to premature death, with these impacts hitting black and brown communities the hardest.
The EPA sets daily and annual limits on how much PM 2.5 people should be exposed to, but most communities lack official EPA monitoring stations. Now, residents of several West Virginia communities are conducting their own PM 2.5 monitoring, as part of a new program called the Upper South and Appalachia Citizen Air Monitoring Project (USACAMP).
Organized by Appalachian Voices, USACAMP involves the installation of small, air monitoring devices at homes or businesses throughout the region to collect data for a period of three years. These devices provide local air quality information that can be viewed online in real time. Appalachian Voices will produce quarterly reports summarizing PM 2.5 conditions in each USACAMP community for the duration of the project.
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USACAMP is looking for more air monitor hosts in West Virginia in or near the communities of Institute and Dunbar in Kanawha County; Northfork, Keystone and Gary in McDowell County; or in between Whitesville and Arnett in the Coal River Valley. To host a monitor, you just need electricity and a wifi connection. The monitors use negligible energy and bandwidth. If you would like to monitor air quality in your community, and you live in one of the areas listed above, contact willie@appvoices.org.
More info: SAMSva.org
Keep reading Black By God for a sponsored content series of articles about the USACAMP throughout 2024-2025. And visit www.AppVoices.org to learn more about this and other projects to advance environmental justice, public health and sustainable economies in Appalachia.
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