Chicago ranked 2nd for worst air pollution in 2023 among major US cities, global report says

Because of this increased severity, early wildfire detection and response systems are crucial to reducing air pollution. Washington state, for example, has installed a network of AI-assisted cameras in remote areas to detect wildfires and proactively control them.

In California, municipalities are giving out air purifiers to residences and schools close to rail yards or busy shipping ports so they can control air quality indoors. And schools around the world that monitor air quality on-site can also use this information to limit students’ time outdoors or schedule around high-pollution events.

Over 400 schools in different countries use air quality monitors and share their findings with IQAir; even that is a small portion of the data the company collects and analyzes. Still, their 2023 report doesn’t include a few dozen countries because of a lack of monitoring in those locations.

“Expanding the global air quality monitoring network is crucial because data collection is really the first step in achieving meaningful impact and addressing air pollution,” Chester Schroeder said. “Data empowers communities to advocate for change and informs policy decisions.”

Encouraging more citizens to engage in air quality monitoring with low-cost sensors can also fill in the gaps from limited government instruments.

The U.S. EPA Region 5 office has a loan program for portable particulate matter sensors available to individuals, community groups, schools and other organizations. In Illinois, the Morton Arboretum in Lisle and the Pontiac Public Library also provide sensor loans and training.

“The accuracy and the representativeness of what’s being measured by citizens these days is good enough to give governments a very good opportunity to understand what’s going on,” Hammes said.

Schools and libraries can also participate in the Air Quality Flag Program, raising a colored flag according to how clean or polluted the air is on a given day. The colors — green, yellow, orange, red and purple — match the EPA’s Air Quality Index scale from good to very unhealthy.

Increasing public interest and knowledge can also help people make daily choices to protect themselves. For instance, fog is generally considered poor but mostly harmless weather, however, it can also be indicative of harmful particulate matter in the air.

“A lot of people are under the assumption that they can just look … outside and think that they understand what that means about the quality of the air. But that’s actually a huge misconception,” Chester Schroeder said. “So we really encourage people to look at air quality data and treat it just like you would the weather in preparing for your day.”

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