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Safer Spring Cleaning for COVID-19 and Beyond | by Washington State Department of Health | Public Health Connection

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It’s time for spring cleaning again!

Most of us know we can prevent the spread of COVID-19 by wearing masks, washing our hands, keeping our distance, and staying home when we’re sick. But, can cleaning and disinfecting also protect your family from COVID-19? The good news is that your current cleaning routine may already be enough to keep you safe!

You may remember hearing that you can get COVID-19 by touching a surface with the virus and then touching your mouth, nose, or face. Well, new research suggests that the risk of getting sick this way is actually pretty low with the right precautions. The best way to prevent getting COVID-19 from a surface is to wash your hands often. Cleaning and disinfecting your home is an extra step you can take to keep your family safe.

Cleaning is when you use soap to remove dirt and germs from a surface or your hands. Cleaning doesn’t kill germs, but it washes them away and lowers your risk of getting sick. This is usually enough to keep you from catching COVID-19 from a surface. Here’s how to do it:

🧽 Use soap, water, and a tightly woven cloth. You don’t need fancy cleaners to do the job. Regular soap gets rid of germs that make you sick.

🧽 Choose plain liquid soap.

  • Choose a soap without fragrances or dyes. These can harm your lungs or irritate your skin.
  • Do not use “antimicrobial” soaps. They don’t add protection from COVID-19, and they’re not good for your health — or the environment.
  • Look for “green” cleaners that have Green Seal or EPA Safer Choice certification. These are better for your health and the environment.

🧽 Clean surfaces that are dirty or touched often. You don’t need to deep clean your home every day, but make sure to regularly clean areas that are hot spots for germs. Focus on areas in your home that people touch often or breathe on. That means areas like counters, doorknobs, light switches, and faucets.

Cleaning with soap is the first step to keeping germs out of your home. In most situations, it is all you need to do. But there are times when you should also disinfect. Disinfecting kills germs left on surfaces after cleaning. You should disinfect if someone in your home is sick or tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.

If you disinfect, it’s important to do it safely and correctly! Chemicals in disinfectants can be bad for you and the environment. To learn more about safe disinfecting, check out this infographic or the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Washing your hands is still important to prevent getting COVID-19. When you wash your hands, you get rid of the germs you picked up from touching surfaces. This reduces your risk of getting sick. To remove germs, scrub your hands with plain soap for at least 20 seconds. Always wash your hands before preparing food or eating, and after going to the bathroom, petting animals or playing outside.

Cleaning and disinfecting add extra protection against COVID-19 and other illnesses. When you do your spring cleaning this year, know that you are doing more than just refreshing your space. You’re also keeping yourself and your family from getting sick. So, clean often, scrub with soap, open those windows, and welcome the wonderful spring weather!

And remember . . . cleaning your home doesn’t replace other safety measures. You still need to wear a mask, watch your distance, stay home if you’re sick, and get vaccinated. Washingtonians have worked hard for the past year to keep our communities safe — thanks for keeping it up!

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Office cleaning costs and upgrades on the rise

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While the cost of office cleaning and maintenance dropped significantly earlier in the pandemic when workers went remote en masse, 2022 is likely to see that cost increase again as more and more employees head back to the office.

Until now, office cleaning has been catering to empty or, at best, half-full facilities, but the challenge is likely to get more intense this year as capacity swells again.

The New York Times notes that numerous measures are already being taken by facility managers, such as installing more robust air filtration and expanding outdoor spaces. While the cost of running an office remains lower than pre-pandemic levels, these latest upgrades are closing that gap. Meanwhile, new cleaning practices may make those services more expensive, and landlords are offering new amenities to lure tenants back.

RELATED: Why wait? The new office normal is up to you

“Operating expenses were down a bit in 2020,” Kristin Mueller, chief operating officer for property management at real estate services company JLL, told the NYT. “For 2022 properties budgets, we are anticipating modest overall increases.”

While having fewer employees on site equates to less daily cleaning, the required level of cleaning has increased, resulting often in higher labour costs and more targeted work. The increased focus on indoor air quality has been a major change, with many companies scrutinizing their ventilation and funnelling more money and resources into improvements. Mueller estimates that new HVAC equipment for a typical 100,000-square-foot office building in Chicago, for example, might cost up to $100,000 to install and can add five to 10 per cent to monthly bills.

RELATED: Many workers may quit if office cleaning lacks

But it’s a necessary expense, not just for baseline health and safety and infection control, but to ensure that buildings have the confidence and trust of their residents, tenants, and visitors. While one could argue that few people cared about “healthy buildings” in 2019, there has been a sea change that will likely prove to be permanent. Now, employees might be asking how often the air filters are cleaned in an office, and buildings are responding.

Meanwhile, other steps being taken include the continuation of the focus on the adoption of touch-free technology to operate doors, faucets, bins, and lighting, as well as ensuring employee welfare takes priority through offering value-added services such as workout facilities, showers, health clinics, and green spaces.

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Millions fight for food, water

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Nine people have died and hundreds have fallen ill with diarrhoea in areas of the Philippines wrecked by a typhoon last month, with aid officials warning of a health crisis as millions struggle to secure clean water and food.

Three weeks after Typhoon Rai struck southern and central islands, destroying thousands of homes and killing more than 400 people, relief work continues to deliver supplies to stranded residents left homeless by the storm.

Nine people have died from dehydration caused by diarrhoea in the impoverished Dinagat Islands and the neighbouring resort island of Siargao, known for its surf spots, the Philippine health department’s regional office said.

A total of 895 cases were recorded there since the typhoon struck, mostly among those left homeless, as the government and aid agencies rush to build emergency water treatment facilities, department spokesperson Ernesto Pareja said.

“It’s hard to say it’s under control. The water supply remains irregular. Their food needs have not been addressed,” Pareja said.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) warned of a “mounting health crisis” in typhoon-hit areas as it scaled up its disaster response.

“It is extremely concerning that people have been getting very sick and even dying in areas smashed by this typhoon,” IFRC Head of Philippine Delegation Alberto Bocanegra said in a statement on Thursday.

The typhoon left “millions without access to clean drinking water, hospitals and health facilities”, Bocanegra added.

A total of 402 people died from the typhoon, according to the Philippine civil defence office’s latest tally, with more than 1,200 injured and 78 still missing and at least 370,000 still in evacuation centres.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said the government’s preparations for the storm and early response had been “laudable” but warned that more support was needed.

“Unless we act now and provide badly needed food assistance to affected families, we risk seeing a rapid rise in preventable malnutrition,” said WFP Country Director and Representative Brenda Barton.

Pareja urged donors and aid agencies to continue their work.

“To all our partners, we hope they will not stop the flow of aid. The situation remains unstable,” Pareja said.

Survivors have likened the storm to Super Typhoon Haiyan, which left 7,300 people dead or missing across the central Philippines in 2013 and remains the country’s deadliest on record.

Local health officials are also monitoring respiratory infections after at least two cases turned out to be Covid-19. — AFP

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Amid wildfires and a pandemic, here’s how to keep your indoor air clean | CU Boulder Today

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Banner image: Ground level ozone, shown here in Denver, is a growing problem in the western United States. (Credit: National Renewable Energy Laboratory) 

It’s no secret: The air quality is bad in Colorado this summer.  

Thus far, the state has issued 59 Ozone Action Day alerts since May 31—the most in a single year since record-keeping began a decade ago. At least one day in August, Denver boasted the worst air quality of any major city in the world.

But what’s in that air?

Marina Vance in her lab at CU Boulder, before the COVID-19 pandemic. (Credit: CU Boulder)

“In the Front Range, we are mostly concerned about two types of air pollutants, especially in the summer: particulate matter and ozone. And then when you’re indoors, there’s now this extra concern about the COVID viruses spreading through the air,” said Marina Vance, an assistant professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering who was awarded an NSF CAREER Award to study how pollutants transform as they move between indoors and out.

So how do we keep ourselves healthy? 

“It can be overwhelming for people to figure out what the least risky situation is,” said Vance, who is also faculty in the environmental engineering program. “We’re hoping that with some simple measures, people can alleviate some anxiety that’s driven by this co-occurrence of the wildfires and COVID persisting.” 

On high ozone days, go inside and shut the windows

First, ozone—it’s been a big part of this summer’s air quality warnings. 

Ozone is a highly reactive gas that forms naturally in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, where it protects us by reducing the amount of harmful UV radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface. But when it forms closer to where we breathe, known as ground-level ozone, it can be harmful. 

Notably, it’s not emitted directly by any air pollution source: It forms in a chemical reaction between volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sunlight, and can be amplified by hot temperatures. Colorado’s abundance of sunlight and heat, combined with VOCs emitted from numerous chemical plants and gasoline pumps (among other sources), and NOx emitted from power plants and motor vehicles—of which Colorado has plenty—makes it a particular hot spot for ozone. 

This ground-level ozone doesn’t just gray our blue skies and obscure our beloved mountains. It doesn’t feel good to breathe. And studies suggest that chronic exposure to this pollutant can lead to lower birth weights, asthma and higher rates of premature death. 

Vance’s advice for high ozone days: Stay inside and close the windows and doors. 

“The ozone is so reactive it will react with the building exterior before it gets inside,” said Vance. 

While VOCs can make their way indoors (no building is completely airtight), ozone cannot form indoors because windows filter out the UV light needed to catalyze the chemical reaction. 

Relying on smell to detect air pollution can be really deceiving.”
—Marina Vance, assistant professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering

Can’t smell it? Don’t ignore it. 

While the air quality is worse this year compared to last year, there’s one major difference: We’re not smelling the smoke. 

This can lead people to underestimate just how bad the air quality is. If you wait until your eyes feel itchy, you start coughing, you smell it or see ash falling, you’re not paying enough attention, according to Vance. 

“Relying on smell to detect air pollution can be really deceiving,” said Vance. 

Box fan with filter
Box fan with filter instructions

Alex Huffman, associate professor at the University of Denver, built these DIY box fans with MERV 13 filters, which protect against COVID-19, for his daughter’s preschool classroom. (Credit: Alex Huffman) 

Smoke from wildfires as far away as California doesn’t carry its smell when it arrives in Colorado, but it can still carry particulate matter, according to Christine Wiedinmyer, associate director for science at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at CU Boulder. 

And we know wildfire smoke can be quite harmful to our health, whether from near or far away, something studied by Colleen Reid, assistant professor of geography.

To check if smoke is at unhealthy levels, Vance recommends using airnow.gov. The overall Air Quality Index incorporates five major pollutants that are regulated by the Clean Air Act into its rating, including PM2.5: The term used for tiny bits of particulate matter in smoke which can be harmful if breathed in. 

This regularly updated index ranges from “Good” to “Moderate” at the low end, all the way up to “Hazardous.” If PM2.5 or the overall rating is at “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” or above, it’s wise to take appropriate precautions inside and out.

To catch and filter wildfire smoke particulate matter indoors, Vance recommends first sealing up your house: Close windows and doors. If you live in a house, replace your furnace filter with a high quality one (MERV13 is a popular and inexpensive one). And if you have air conditioning, recirculate the indoor air within the house to further reduce particulate matter. 

If living in an apartment or condo, she recommends purchasing a portable air cleaner, which often use high quality HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filters, a type of pleated mechanical air filter. Keep the portable filter in the room you’re in. 

If you don’t have central air conditioning or a window unit, and can’t keep doors and windows closed while indoors, Vance recommends a DIY approach. Place a high-quality furnace filter, such as a MERV13, on the intake side of a box fan blowing air into the room; then seal the window opening surrounding the fan. This will let outdoor air in to cool the room but filter out much of the particulate matter from wildfire smoke. Adding a portable air cleaner (with a HEPA filter) can help further reduce particulate matter and viruses within the room. However, this approach does not filter out ground-level ozone.

Build your own DIY air filter

Need a portable, affordable air filter that will do the trick in a pinch? Vance and Jose-Luis Jimenez, chemistry professor at CU Boulder and fellow at CIRES, recommend going the DIY route. These box fan filters are great for removing airborne virus particles and particulate matter from dorm rooms, offices and other small spaces—all for about $40. 

You’ll need three things: A 20″ box fan, a 20″ x 20″ MERV 12 or 13 furnace/HVAC filter, and some heavy-duty tape. 

Simply place the filter on the back of the fan (where the air comes in, not out) and make sure it’s facing the correct direction for air to flow through. Then tape the edges of the filter securely to the fan, creating a seal between the box fan and the filter. Find more information and a how-to video here. 

If using this system to blow air in through an open window, Vance recommends only using it on days when it’s not too hot and ozone levels are not high, as this method does not filter out ozone. 

Pay attention to more than one pollutant 

What about days with high ozone and high smoke levels? 

Be careful with what online tool you use, because it might be only telling you half the story, Vance notes. She recommends airnow.gov, which is based on good data from EPA air quality regulatory stations, and measures both ozone and particulate matter. 

While Purple Air is a popular online site many reference, it does not measure ozone levels. 

“The overall air quality index is only driven by whatever is the worst thing. But if both ozone and particulate matter are rated orange, that’s extra bad,” said Vance. 

But we can take advantage of how these pollutants vary throughout the day. For example, ozone levels are higher in the afternoons and evenings. So if you can’t resist exercising outdoors, do it early.

Get clean air, no matter where

COVID-19 further complicates the equation, as spending time indoors with other people is something we’ve now been advised to avoid. 

But fortunately, the same MERV13 or HEPA systems which filter out particulate matter from fires can also help catch and keep viruses out of the air. And when changing your filter, you don’t need to worry that it’s COVID-laden, because the virus is simply not going to survive on it, said Vance.  

Either way, avoid ionizing bipolar, ionizers and UV light air purifiers at home—there’s no need for them, and some types of UV light can be harmful, said Vance. 

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Jonesborough’s Mary B. Martin Program for the Arts at the McKinney Center announces spring art classes | Sunday Stories

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Submitted by Nora Davis

JONESBOROUGH — The McKinney Center and Mary B. Martin Program for the Arts have announced the spring schedule of classes for children and adults.

Registration is now underway, and an open house will be held Jan. 15 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to give interested community members an opportunity to see what the spring classes have to offer. Faculty members and McKinney Center staff will be present for questions, displays and demonstrations. The early bird discount of $10 per class ends that day.

“The open house is a good time to meet your instructor and to really see what you will get out of taking a class here at the McKinney Center,” said Theresa Hammons, executive director. “There is something for everyone here at the McKinney Center. Most of our classes are for beginners, but one of the great things about our offerings is that the class sizes are small, usually no more than eight to 10 students. If you are more or less skilled, the instructor has time to work with you one on one.”

The McKinney Center will offer over 70 classes and workshops during the spring semester. There are several new classes and new instructors in the lineup, including daytime classes that are a good fit for home-school students and adults looking for creative outlets. All courses are led by experienced and supportive faculty. Class sizes are small, and spaces fill up quickly. Individual class costs vary.

The spring lineup includes art, music, drama, crafts and dance for students of all ages. The last day to register is Jan. 29 at 5 p.m. Students can register online at mckinneycenter.com.

For children, the program offers instruction for young artists ready to explore the world of art. Students receive an introduction to art skills where activities and projects are organized to develop understanding and experiment with a wide variety of media, techniques and processes.

For older elementary-aged students, courses are taught to build their skills as artists, including drawing and painting skills taken to the next level. Classes in writing, film, music and dance are also available for this age range, including creative construction, homeschool art, Kids N Clay, young potters, “Let’s Make a TV Show,” anime, mosaics, ballet, tap, drawing and guitar.

“I’m excited about our spring semester in its entirety because we have so many new offerings and several new teachers,” said Hammons.

The one-day workshop options for spring semester are extensive and include “Introduction to the Zentangle Method of Drawing” and “Zentangle — Working with Tan Tiles”; glass fusion workshops including pendants, garden stakes, suncatchers and spring plates; and several ceramic wheel workshops including bowls, casserole dishes and mugs; and several ceramic decorating and design workshops including mushrooms, trays and bird houses. There will be a fairy garden cottage workshop, a workshop on constructing mandalas, plus others covering alcohol ink, acrylic painting, crocheting sculpted vessels, healing soap-making, and casting and mold-making.

The McKinney Center has made changes to its schedule of classes, allowing 30 minutes between classes to provide ample time for students, faculty and staff to clean up and disinfect before the next class. To accommodate the change, a few classes were eliminated. However, they were replaced with more one-day workshops. Other changes will include providing supply kits for individual students when possible rather than using shared supplies, breaks in classes to wash hands, continuing a strict regimen of disinfecting and cleaning the building, and providing video options for students who miss a class due to feeling ill. To read the center’s complete list of policies and procedures, visit mckinneycenter.com.

Full descriptions of spring classes can be found online at www.mckinneycenter.com. A hard copy catalog is also available inside the McKinney Center or from the green mailbox outside of the office doors.

Scholarships are available for K-12 students with a financial need. Scholarship applications are available online at https://mckinneycenter.com/scholarships/.

The McKinney Center is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Updates are available on The McKinney Center at Booker T. Washington School Facebook page throughout the year. To learn more, contact Hammons by email at [email protected] or call her at 423-753-0562.

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How bitterness over the water in the Midlands’ taps sparked bombing campaign

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It has been buried by history, but almost exactly 40 years ago, a bomb ripped through the Birmingham headquarters of the Severn Trent Water Authority.

A warning call had been made to the Guardian newspaper before the January 2, 1982, blast which shattered windows and punctured a hole in the roof.

Within an hour a second bomb had been found at a Stratford-upon-Avon industrial estate and was safely defused. No-one was injured in either plot.

READ MORE: Tap water in Birmingham may soon taste different

The chaos was not the work of Irish terrorists who had struck before in Birmingham with such hideous human cost.
This time the threat came from Wales.

The individual who made the midnight call to the Guardian’s London offices claimed to be from an organisation calling itself The Workers Army of the Welsh Republic. They did not want independence for their country.

They wanted Severn Trent to pay more for the water that swilled from Welsh reservoirs, such as the Elan Valley, into West Midlands taps.

The Birmingham bomb exploded on the roof of a single-storey building attached to Severn Trent’s multi-storey office block in Coventry Road, Sheldon.

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Thankfully, within half-an-hour of the alarm being raised, police had evacuated nearby flats and shops and sealed the street.

The Stratford UXB had been placed at the offices the International Development Corporation on an industrial estate in Timothy’s Bridge Road. IDC were in the headlines at the time over plans to develop part of the Snowdonia National Park.

The company also had links with Margaret Thatcher’s husband, Denis, who served them as business advisor.
The crimes baffled detectives: they had never heard of the The Workers Army of the Welsh Republic.

But they came during a rash of arson attacks on English holiday cottages in Wales.

The planted bombs followed mounting anger over the way Welsh water was being funnelled to the West Midlands.

Facebook site The History of Wales reported: “During the 20th century, the drowning of Welsh valleys to supply water for English cities became a contentious subject which led to non-violent and violent campaigns and protests.

The Severn Trent Authority offices in Birmingham following a bomb explosion. A telephone caller to The Guardian newspaper said the bombs were planted by the Workers Army of the Welsh Republic. 2nd January 1982.

“On occasions land in rural Wales was bought by English cities through compulsory purchase and there was little that local people could do to prevent it.

“Valuable natural resources were being taken from Wales without compensation in many cases, and there was a growing feeling of discontent because England was not exploiting her own resources to obtain water, for example the River Trent, the second biggest river in England, produces over 1,400 tonnes of water per day, but has no reservoirs.

“On January 2, 1982, The Welsh Army of Workers claimed responsibility for a bomb explosion at the Birmingham headquarters of the Severn Trent Water Authority.

“An hour later a second bomb was found and defused at the main complex of the International Development Corporation (IDC) in Stratford-upon-Avon.

“Birmingham and the rest of the West Midlands get millions of gallons of water a year from reservoirs in the Elan Valley in Wales and the IDC had only recently been in the news in connection with plans to develop part of the Snowdonia National Park, therefore both incidents were believed to be part of a campaign to get the water authority to pay more for water pumped from Welsh reservoirs to the Midlands.”

The Elan Valley Aqueduct during its construction.

The Elan Valley Aqueduct during its construction.

And Welsh extremists were evidently becoming bolder.

On the very same day they hit Birmingham, terrorists claimed responsibility for a bomb attack in the heart of Britain’s newspaper industry, Fleet Street.

News agency United Press International reported: “A bomb exploded Saturday night off Fleet Street, where many of Britain’s newspapers are printed. Police believe it was detonated by Welsh nationalists who earlier set two other bombs – one of them in Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford-on-Avon.

“No-one was hurt in London or Birmingham, where the other bomb exploded, and bomb disposal experts defused the Stratford-on-Avon device that was planted at the offices of a property company connected with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s husband, Denis.

“The Fleet Street bomb exploded ‘with a loud crack’ at the rear of Bouverie Street at 10.30 pm, about 10 minutes after an anonymous caller phoned a warning to The Observer newspaper.

“The News of the World, The Sun and the Daily Mail are printed in Bouverie Street, where the office of United Press International is also located.

“‘The device was in a small cardboard box. It consisted of two pieces of tubing with a crude form of watch timing device,’ police spokesman John Simmonds said.

White wonder - the first dam on the route at the head of the Craig Goch reservoir in the Elan Valley

White wonder – the first dam on the route at the head of the Craig Goch reservoir in the Elan Valley

“He said the anonymous caller was a man with a ‘mildly Welsh’ accent, who said, ‘this is a bomb warning’. The caller added a codeword and said, ‘at 10 Bouverie Street. Get on with it boyo’.”

The attacks were condemned by the ex-president of Plaid Cymru, Gwynfor Evans. He said although he strongly supported the call for England to pay more for Welsh water, he would never condone acts of violence.

The siphoning of Welsh water began in the 1880s with Lake Vyrnwy, the first reservoir in Wales and, at the time, the biggest man-made lake in the world. It was built for the purpose of supplying Liverpool and Merseyside with fresh water. It flooded the head of the Vyrnwy valley and submerged the small village of Llanwddyn.

Elan Valley’s water has been described as the fluid that drove Birmingham’s industrialisation.

The Elan Valley Aqueduct (nicknamed the EVA) was the vision of Birmingham City Council, known then as the Birmingham Corporation and led by Joseph Chamberlain. Their concern for the health of Birmingham’s rapidly expanding population was the driving ideology behind the awe inspiring civil engineering scheme.

Elan Valley, a picturesque rural region near the Welsh town of Rhayadar, was identified by the Corporation in 1892 as a potential source of clean water to feed into the city for its inhabitants and industry. Through an act of Parliament the Corporation were able to make a compulsory purchase of the water catchment and start the ambitious plans for the EVA, with James Mansergh appointed as the project engineer.

By 1897 work was underway, with the Birmingham Corporation Waterworks Department constructing housing, recreational centres, pubs and shops for the workers who moved to Wales to work on the project.

The first phase of work was completed by 1904, however work has been continuous since then with improvements and repairs. Today Severn Trent are undertaking an incredible civil engineering project to create a new 16 mile pipeline for Birmingham.

The maintenance tunnels and waterways are a strange mixture of the old and new, cabelling, lights and plastic piping are housed within passages of hundred year old brick.

Externally, the weathered stones, moss and lichen licked, stand like goliaths in the idyllic valley. The importance of the EVA within Birmingham’s history can’t be understated, it provided health for the people and economic advancement for the city.

It’s a prime example of Victorian ingenuity and awe inspiring engineering.

IN the annals of UK terrorist threats, the part played by Welsh extremists has become something of a footnote.

But blog “winterof79” outlines the threat militant groups from the small country posed.

“The Free Wales Army (Welsh: Fyddin Rhyddid Cymru) was formed in Lampeter, Mid-Wales in 1963, with the avowed objective of bringing about an independant Welsh republic. The FWA had a full rank structure, uniform code, rank badges and decorations.

“Armed with weapons donated by the IRA, they had 200 members attending training camps. About the same time, the Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (Movement for the Defence of Wales) or MAC launched a series of bombing attacks.

On the eve of the Prince of Wales’ investiture in 1969, two members were killed when the bomb they were planting on the railway line used by the Royal Train exploded prematurely. The leaders of both organisations were jailed by 1970.

“The1970s saw the FWA and MAC being succeeded by nationalist movements such as Meibion Glyndŵr (Sons of Glyndŵr) Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (the movement to defend Wales), Cadwyr Cymru (the keepers of Wales), The Welsh Army for the Workers Republic (WAWR) and Welsh Socialist Republican Army (WRA). One or more of these took part in bombing campaigns in 1979-80 and into the early eighties.”

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Indoor Air Quality

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Introduction

We tend to think of air pollution as a risk faced outside, but the air we breathe indoors can also be polluted. Smoke, vapors, mold, and chemicals used in certain paints, furnishings, and cleaners can all affect indoor air quality and our health.

Buildings affect overall well-being because most people spend most of their time inside. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates Americans are indoors 90% of their time – in built environments such as homes, schools, workplaces, places of worship, or gyms.

Environmental health researchers study how indoor air quality affects human health and well-being. Studies suggest that indoor concentrations of air pollutants are increasing, driven by factors such as the types of chemicals in home products, inadequate ventilation, hotter temperatures, and higher humidity.

Indoor air quality is a global issue. Both short- and long-term exposure to indoor air pollution can cause a range of health issues, including respiratory diseases, heart disease, cognitive deficits, and cancer. As one prominent example, the World Health Organization estimates 3.8 million people worldwide die every year from illnesses attributable to harmful indoor air from dirty cookstoves and fuel.

Certain populations may be affected more than others. Children, older adults, individuals with preexisting conditions, Native Americans, and households of low socioeconomic status are often exposed to higher levels of indoor pollutants.

Types of Pollutants

building with stairs

Many factors contribute to poor indoor air quality. Indoor air includes pollutants that penetrate from the outdoors, as well as sources that are unique to the indoor environment. These sources involve:

  • Human activities within buildings, such as smoking, burning solid fuels, cooking, and cleaning.
  • Vapors from building and construction materials, equipment, and furniture.
  • Biological contaminants, such as mold, viruses, or allergens.

Some contaminants are described below:

  • Allergens are substances that can trigger the immune system, causing an allergic reaction; they can circulate in air and remain on carpets and furniture for months.
  • Asbestos is a fibrous material formerly used for making incombustible or fireproof building materials, such as roof shingles, siding, and insulation. Disturbing asbestos minerals or asbestos-containing materials can release fibers, often too small to see, into the air. Asbestos is known to be a human carcinogen.
  • Carbon monoxide is an odorless and toxic gas. It is found in fumes produced any time you burn fuel in cars or trucks, small engines, stoves, lanterns, grills, fireplaces, gas ranges, or furnaces. Proper venting or exhaust systems prevent build up in the air.
  • Formaldehyde is a strong-smelling chemical found in some pressed wood furniture, wood particle cabinets, flooring, carpets, and fabrics. It can also be a component of some glues, adhesives, paints, and coating products. Formaldehyde is known to be a human carcinogen.
  • Lead is a naturally occurring metal that has been used in a wide variety of products including gasoline, paint, plumbing pipes, ceramics, solders, batteries, and even cosmetics.
  • Mold is a microorganism and type of fungus that thrives in damp places; different molds are found everywhere, indoors and outside.
  • Pesticides are substances used to kill, repel, or control certain forms of plants or bugs that are considered to be pests.
  • Radon is a colorless, odorless, naturally occurring gas that comes from the decay of radioactive elements in soils. It can enter indoor spaces through cracks or gaps in buildings. Most exposures occur inside homes, schools, and workplaces. EPA estimates radon is responsible for about 21,000 U.S. deaths from lung cancer annually.
  • Smoke, a byproduct of combustion processes, such as from cigarettes, cookstoves, and wildfires, contains toxic chemicals like formaldehyde and lead.

What is NIEHS Doing?

NIEHS supports research on the health effects of indoor air pollutants, such as those listed above, found in homes, schools, and workplaces. Because individuals move between indoor and outdoor environments, researchers are also developing specialized technologies to measure and collect data on personal exposures.

Respiratory Disease

Doctor listening to child's heartbeat

  • Actions to reduce mold exposure in early life may have long-term health benefits, potentially decreasing prevalence and severity of asthma.
  • Among inner-city children with asthma who live in homes with high levels of indoor air pollution, those children with sufficient vitamin D levels had fewer symptoms.
  • Household air pollution exposure likely affects lung development prenatally. Indoor air pollution exposure during pregnancy was associated with impaired lung function in infants. This altered infant lung function may then increase risk for pneumonia in the first year of life.
  • Outdoor air quality can affect indoor air. Air pollution levels have been trending downward over several decades in southern California, due to air quality-control policies. These improvements in air quality are associated with improved lung development in children.
  • The school environment contributes to childhood asthma illness. A study found that airborne mouse allergens in inner-city schools are linked to increased symptoms and decreased lung function in asthmatic children. School-based environmental interventions may be beneficial for curbing the public health problem of childhood asthma.

Cardiovascular Disease

  • A study partially supported by NIEHS found that markers of cardiovascular disease risk appear when ozone levels are even lower than current EPA air quality standards. In healthy adults, exposure to short-term indoor and outdoor ozone was linked to increased blood platelets, a risk factor for clotting, and increased blood pressure.

Cognitive Effects

  • Indoor exposures to air pollutants, including particulate matter, allergens, oxides of nitrogen, endotoxin, and mold, have been associated with impaired health and performance in children and adults.
  • Characterization of indoor air pollution in schools is a public health concern for children, given the large amount of time spent there. Some inner-city schools exceeded WHO guidelines for interior air quality, particularly for nitric oxide, an indoor air pollutant that can affect cognitive outcomes, verbal abilities, and executive functioning. Physical defects and lack of proper ventilation contributed to the poor air quality in schools. The results suggest that improving building conditions and facilities, as well as consideration of the school’s outdoor surroundings, could create healthier environments.
  • Office workers scored higher on performance measures when working in “green” environments with low indoor pollutants and low carbon dioxide levels.
  • The air quality within an office can affect employees’ cognitive function, including response times and ability to focus, and it may also affect their productivity, according to NIEHS-funded research led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Cancer

Community Involvement

NIEHS grant recipients work directly with communities affected by indoor air pollution to help reduce exposures and improve quality of life. Examples follow.

Citizen Science

  • Together with researchers at two NIEHS-funded core centers — the University of Kentucky Center for Appalachian Research in Environmental Sciences and the University of Cincinnati Center for Environmental Genetics — high school students developed and pilot-tested a family-centered home radon testing toolkit with the ultimate goal of preventing lung cancer.
  • To enable community-based research, NIEHS-funded researchers invented a low-cost, portable sensor for detecting indoor pollutants. The development of such high quality and affordable real-time sensors provides new opportunities to conduct research and inform individuals or communities on daily health risks.
  • Engaging youth as partners in environmental health research can motivate them to pursue careers in science, build self-esteem and leadership skills, and educate their communities. At the University of California, Berkeley, the Lifting Up Communities by Intervening with Research (LUCIR) study involved high school students in characterizing chemicals in household cleaning products and estimating exposures to those chemicals. They repeated the process with “green” cleaning products, and noted reductions in harmful chemicals. Then to educate their target audience of Latina household cleaning staff, they developed engaging videos about choosing safer cleaning products. Learn more in a podcast linked below.

Tribal Nations

child celebrates native american culture

  • Hopi tribe members in the American Southwest identified indoor air quality, as well as arsenic in drinking water, as environmental exposures of concern. These perceptions derive from actual experiences with health problems such as cancer and asthma. Study authors emphasize including traditional values and practices in future interventions to reduce environmental health risks.
  • Patricia Nez Henderson, M.D., vice president of the Black Hills Center for American Indian Health and a NIEHS-funded researcher, is working to create culturally-relevant smoking cessation and secondhand smoke reduction interventions in Lakota communities. Learn more from a podcast listed below.
  • Residential burning of biomass for heat leads to elevated indoor levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) that often exceed health-based air quality standards. NIEHS-funded grant recipients are developing and testing low-cost, educational, and sustainable interventions for improving residential heating to reduce young children’s risk of respiratory diseases in Native American communities.

Low- and Middle-income Countries (LMICs)

cookstoves

Examples of clean cookstoves
(Photo courtesy of U.S. Mission Geneva)

  • NIEHS participates in the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network trial, a randomized controlled study of liquefied petroleum gas stove and fuel distribution to 3,200 households in four countries. The largest global source of indoor pollution, particularly in LMICs, comes from cooking and heating with solid fuels, including dung, wood, agricultural residues, and coal. Data from studies, such as this one, are needed to inform policies on interventions to reduce household air pollution among vulnerable populations.
  • In LMICs, about 3 million infants and children younger than 5 years die every year from pneumonia, according to WHO. Exposure to household air pollution from burning biomass fuels was implicated in about a third of these cases. NIEHS has funded research related to cookstoves, which contributes to understanding health effects of this form of household air pollution.
  • NIEHS also partnered with the American Thoracic Society, the European Respiratory Society, and the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves on an international workshop on respiratory health effects of household air pollution. The workshop task force concluded, in 2018, scientific evidence supports the potential to develop scalable solutions that can reduce these exposures and improve lives. Respiratory diseases from household air pollution are preventable for 2.8 billion people worldwide.
  • Research, co-funded by NIEHS, shows that prenatal household air pollution exposure increased the chance of developing pneumonia in the first year of life. The authors concluded that clean-burning interventions, such as cookstoves, may be most effective when begun before children are born.

Further Reading

Stories from the Environmental Factor (NIEHS newsletter)

Press Releases

Podcasts

  • Engaging Youth in Research (2021) – The NIEHS-funded Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMCAOS) shares experiences with youth-led research, what they have learned, and how the program prepares the next generation of environmental health leaders.
  • Using Culturally Appropriate Messages to Promote Smoke-free Homes (2021) – NIEHS-funded researchers work with tribal communities to encourage smoke-free homes and improve health.
  • Vapor Intrusion and Your Health (2018) – Better characterization and prediction of vapor-forming chemicals that can migrate into homes can help communities understand what they mean for their health.

Additional Resources

  • Environmental Health Disparities and Environmental Justice – NIEHS supports many research programs, community-engaged activities, and training and education programs to reduce the disparate health effects of environmental hazards in disadvantaged communities and improve health equity.
  • Fungal Diseases webpage from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases covers fungal diseases caused by a variety of fungi commonly found in the environment. You can inhale fungi spores, or they can land on you. As a result, fungal infections tend to start in the lungs or on the skin.
  • Indoor Air in Homes and Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a how-to guide by the EPA on improving ventilation to preserve indoor air quality and halt the spread of COVID-19.
  • Indoor Environmental Quality is a resource from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health with information on indoor environmental contaminants and ways to control them.
  • Prescription for Prevention: Indoor Air is a resource for healthcare professionals developed by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai through an NIEHS grant.
  • The Inside Story: A Guide to Indoor Air Quality is a safety guide prepared by EPA and the Consumer Product Safety Commission with steps for reducing indoor air pollution in your home.

Related Health Topics

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Indoor Air Pollution Remains a Deadly—and Unregulated—Problem

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The air you breathe outside is more heavily regulated than the air you breathe in your home, and air quality advocates want more protection for indoor air quality issues—especially as climate change impacts like fires and heat force people to seek shelter indoors.

Harmful indoor air quality has been listed as one of the top five environmental risks to public health, according to Environmental Protection Agency comparative risk studies. Yet there’s no comprehensive regulation that addresses those harms outside of a patchwork of protections and standards of care.

And the stakes for indoor pollution mitigation have only continued to rise, American Lung Association Director of Environmental Health Kevin Stewart told Bloomberg Law.

“Climate change and the Covid crisis are certainly helping to bring that more into the public consciousness and into the consciousness of policymakers,” he said.

The Biden administration’s increased focus on environmental justice also raises the ante on a pollution issue that disproportionately affects low-income communities, others say.

Asbestos from building materials, particulate matter released from cooking, outdoor pollution seepage, and even popular scented candles contribute to indoor emissions that lead to more than 4 million premature global deaths a year, according to World Health Organization data.

Indoor pollution sources including adhesives, mold, manufactured wood, and cleaning supplies can contribute to short- and long-term illnesses like asthma in concentrated doses. People living and working inside inadequately ventilated buildings can also experience “sick building syndrome,” which results in nausea and dizziness.

‘Never Been Enough’

WHO has set minimum standards for indoor air pollutants, such as benzene and carbon monoxide, while some European Union countries like France and Germany have taken steps to draft legislation or national plans for indoor air quality.

Other countries “take the science a little bit earlier out of the gate and put it in policy, and we tend to take 20, 30, 40 years,” according to Gillian Mittelstaedt, executive director of the Tribal Healthy Homes Network, an organization that advocates for healthy indoor air in tribal communities.

The Clean Air Act led to major improvements for U.S. air, but that’s “never been enough” to mitigate harm from indoor environments where Americans spend 90% of their time, University of Nottingham professor and retired Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory senior scientist Max Sherman told Bloomberg Law.

“The current problems are different,” he said. “And either the Act must be reinterpreted or changed or evolved to be able to include the sources that are of growing importance.”

Indoor air quality advocates continue to push for better protections, including through better model standards that can be adopted into building codes.

“One of the best things we can do to improve things is to raise minimum standards by however much we can,” said William P. Bahnfleth, an architectural engineering professor at Pennsylvania State University.

Advocates are hopeful that increased funding for research, more robust guidance, and the adoption of local solutions could also ease the burden.

“The solution is going to be multi-pronged; there is no silver bullet,” Mittelstaedt said.

Limited Authority

Unlike emissions spewed from smokestacks on industrial facilities, agencies like the EPA don’t have broad regulatory authority to address indoor pollution.

This leaves an issue-by-issue collection of building code thresholds and chemical regulations, such as asbestos mitigation through Toxic Substances Control Act or other programs like the National Radon Action Plan targeting carcinogenic radon.

Congress has occasionally taken up the mantle, including with the Indoor Air Quality Act of 1991, which tasked the EPA with research and programs geared towards mitigating indoor air pollution. That bill died after passing the Senate.

More recently, lawmakers have introduced proposals for indoor air cleanup in places like schools or buildings. Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux (D-Ga.) introduced a bill this year (S. 122, H.R. 1398) that would provide incentives for better indoor filtration for businesses.

“We have the science to develop exposure limits, guidelines, or standards,” Mittelstaedt said. “The implementation issue—both as a practitioner, how you would do that, and as a regulator, how you would achieve that—are some major questions in front of us.”

Part of the challenge is that— despite ample research connecting improved health outcomes with indoor air quality—no targeted mechanism exists to measure the harmful effects of daily pollution exposure on things such as day-to-day productivity indoors, Bahnfleth noted.

“You have a real expense that you have to pay, compared with a benefit that you have to believe in,” he said.

Some home builders and construction companies also have pushed back on more complex requirements that add time and costs to construction.

The National Association of Home Builders opposes increased ventilation rates that could add costs and trigger additional requirements, according to Craig Drumheller, the organization’s assistant vice president of construction codes and standards.

“NAHB supports changes to the building code that clearly demonstrate a cost effective benefit, and we do not believe that many of the new ventilation requirements have met that test,” he said in a statement.

Federal Versus Local

The EPA has to “walk a fine line,” Sherman noted, because while indoor air pollution is an issue for the agency, it can’t craft standards.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development, too, is faced with the challenge of balancing indoor air issues while not making affordable housing more expensive for Americans in the face of higher building costs.

Builders also can adopt voluntary EPA thresholds such as Indoor airPLUS, which lays out construction specifications that reduce exposure to indoor emissions from building materials.

“We’re making steps towards getting this right, but there’s a long way to go,” Sherman said.

State and local building codes fill some of the gaps left by the lack of federal authority, but advocates want more than the bare minimum.

States such as California have adopted model standards into their codes for non-residential buildings. Other states leave standards adoption up to local governments, and many states don’t adopt any at all.

Those model codes can include guidelines from the International Energy Conservation Code, or standards of care for indoor ventilation set by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers—known as ASHRAE. Even those could use some re-working, experts said.

“What almost none of them require is that you consider the outdoor air,” said Sherman, who sits on the ASHRAE residential ventilation committee. “That is, if you live in an EPA non-attainment area, you don’t have to do anything differently, and that’s one of the things we’re working on.”

Without a comprehensive regulatory strategy, throwing more federal dollars at localized pollution mitigation strategies like air monitoring also could offer more protections.

This is especially true for low-income communities living in urban heat islands, who can be forced inside homes with poor ventilation on hot days or after extreme weather events.

“The drive to address indoor air should be coupled with attention to the EJ communities, because those are the people who are going to have the least protected indoor environment,” Mittelstaedt said.

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Abundant Hospice Home Opens Inpatient Hospice Care Facility in San Antonio; First Hospice in Texas to Deploy LightStrike Germ-Zapping Robot

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SAN ANTONIO, November 17, 2021–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Abundant Hospice today celebrated the opening of its new 8,400-square-foot inpatient hospice care facility — Abundant Hospice Home.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006192/en/

Founded by Denise Jaworski and Nick Ortega, Abundant Hospice Home is redefining end-of-life care in Texas with the opening of a state-of-the-art inpatient hospice care facility that provides patients and their families with holistic care that encompasses mind, body, and spirit. It’s the first hospice facility in Texas to utilize a LightStrike Germ-Zapping Robot to disinfect rooms and areas within the building. (Photo: Business Wire)

With the launch of its state-of-the-art program, Abundant Hospice Home redefines end-of-life care in Texas. With 12 private, family-centered rooms, it will provide patients and their families with holistic care that encompasses mind, body, and spirit. Patient amenities include an on-site chapel with piano, on-site chaplain, massage treatments by a licensed masseuse, aromatherapy, soothing waterfall, large aquarium, chef-made meals, family-style kitchen and dining room, and televisions in every room with “Facetime” or Skype-like features — all encompassed in a spa-like environment.

Abundant Hospice founder Denise Jaworski said, “We intentionally designed Abundant Hospice Home to be a tranquil space for patients and their families. End-stage care comes with an array of challenges, and we are sensitive to those difficulties. Our patients and their families deserve first-class care in a peaceful and restorative environment. We look forward to supporting our local community during life’s most challenging moments.”

Noting safety as her number one priority, Jaworski revealed Abundant Hospice Home will become Texas’ first hospice inpatient care facility to utilize a Xenex LightStrike UV disinfection robot to destroy germs. Named “Ray of Sunshine” by the hospice leadership team, the robot utilizes pulsed xenon to create intense bursts of powerful UV light that quickly destroys bacteria and viruses on surfaces.

Story continues

The LightStrike robot is proven to quickly deactivate SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) as well as other microorganisms, such as influenza, MRSA, and Clostridium difficile (C.diff). “Ray of Sunshine” will be used daily at Abundant Hospice Home to disinfect patient rooms, restrooms, the family kitchen, chapel, offices, public areas and much more.

Xenex is a world leader in UV disinfection for healthcare facilities, and more than 45 peer-reviewed studies have been published validating the efficacy of the LightStrike technology. Many of the nation’s leading healthcare facilities and hospital systems use LightStrike robots for room disinfection, including the Mayo Clinic, MD Anderson, Henry Ford Health System, Stanford, University Hospital (San Antonio), and more than 130 Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense hospitals. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, LightStrike robots are now used in airports, schools, hotels, sports arenas, police stations and correctional facilities, convention centers, and more to quickly disinfect large rooms and areas.

“Our decision to incorporate Xenex technology into our cleaning protocols is significant. Making sure we have a properly disinfected environment supports patient health and reassures our employees that we are doing everything possible to provide a germ-free environment. Family members and patient support systems can trust that their loved one is cared for in all areas of physical and mental health,” said Jaworski.

To inaugurate the new facility, Abundant Hospice Home will open its doors to the public on Thursday, November 18th. Tours are available and can be made via phone call to Keyonna at (210) 608-0081 or via email to [email protected].

About Abundant Hospice
Founded by Denise Jaworski and Nick Ortega, Abundant Hospice is a family-owned agency that embraces the philosophy that each patient and family is unique and requires a specialized team approach in developing a truly individualized plan of care that focuses on your medical, emotional and spiritual needs. Their reputation is a direct result of their desire to do more than what is required or expected. They pride themselves on listening and placing patients and families’ needs and wants foremost. Their dedicated and experienced team of healthcare professionals strives to provide the best in hospice care to people of all ages living with end-stage illness. For additional information on their end-stage care services and facilities, visit www.abundanthospicecare.com.

About Xenex
Xenex is a world leader in UV technology-based disinfection strategies and solutions. Frost & Sullivan named Xenex the 2020 Global Company of the Year for its patented technology and being at the vanguard of the fight against SARS-CoV-2. Xenex is focused on developing, manufacturing and commercializing products and services that utilize its innovative, proprietary disinfection technologies to stop the spread of deadly pathogens that cause infectious diseases. Xenex is backed by well-known investors that include EW Healthcare Partners, Piper Sandler, Malin Corporation, Battery Ventures, Targeted Technology Fund II, Tectonic Ventures and RK Ventures. For more information, visit www.xenex.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211117006192/en/

Contacts

Melinda Hart
Xenex
210 240 4669
[email protected]

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Originally Appeared Here

Understanding air pollution from space | MIT News

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Climate change and air pollution are interlocking crises that threaten human health. Reducing emissions of some air pollutants can help achieve climate goals, and some climate mitigation efforts can in turn improve air quality.

One part of MIT Professor Arlene Fiore’s research program is to investigate the fundamental science in understanding air pollutants — how long they persist and move through our environment to affect air quality.

“We need to understand the conditions under which pollutants, such as ozone, form. How much ozone is formed locally and how much is transported long distances?” says Fiore, who notes that Asian air pollution can be transported across the Pacific Ocean to North America. “We need to think about processes spanning local to global dimensions.”

Fiore, the Peter H. Stone and Paola Malanotte Stone Professor in Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, analyzes data from on-the-ground readings and from satellites, along with models, to better understand the chemistry and behavior of air pollutants — which ultimately can inform mitigation strategies and policy setting.

A global concern

At the United Nations’ most recent climate change conference, COP26, air quality management was a topic discussed over two days of presentations.

“Breathing is vital. It’s life. But for the vast majority of people on this planet right now, the air that they breathe is not giving life, but cutting it short,” said Sarah Vogel, senior vice president for health at the Environmental Defense Fund, at the COP26 session.

“We need to confront this twin challenge now through both a climate and clean air lens, of targeting those pollutants that warm both the air and harm our health.”

Earlier this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) updated its global air quality guidelines it had issued 15 years earlier for six key pollutants including ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and carbon monoxide (CO). The new guidelines are more stringent based on what the WHO stated is the “quality and quantity of evidence” of how these pollutants affect human health. WHO estimates that roughly 7 million premature deaths are attributable to the joint effects of air pollution.

“We’ve had all these health-motivated reductions of aerosol and ozone precursor emissions. What are the implications for the climate system, both locally but also around the globe? How does air quality respond to climate change? We study these two-way interactions between air pollution and the climate system,” says Fiore.

But fundamental science is still required to understand how gases, such as ozone and nitrogen dioxide, linger and move throughout the troposphere — the lowermost layer of our atmosphere, containing the air we breathe.

“We care about ozone in the air we’re breathing where we live at the Earth’s surface,” says Fiore. “Ozone reacts with biological tissue, and can be damaging to plants and human lungs. Even if you’re a healthy adult, if you’re out running hard during an ozone smog event, you might feel an extra weight on your lungs.”

Telltale signs from space

Ozone is not emitted directly, but instead forms through chemical reactions catalyzed by radiation from the sun interacting with nitrogen oxides — pollutants released in large part from burning fossil fuels—and volatile organic compounds. However, current satellite instruments cannot sense ground-level ozone.

“We can’t retrieve surface- or even near-surface ozone from space,” says Fiore of the satellite data, “although the anticipated launch of a new instrument looks promising for new advances in retrieving lower-tropospheric ozone”. Instead, scientists can look at signatures from other gas emissions to get a sense of ozone formation. “Nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde are a heavy focus of our research because they serve as proxies for two of the key ingredients that go on to form ozone in the atmosphere.”

To understand ozone formation via these precursor pollutants, scientists have gathered data for more than two decades using spectrometer instruments aboard satellites that measure sunlight in ultraviolet and visible wavelengths that interact with these pollutants in the Earth’s atmosphere — known as solar backscatter radiation.

Satellites, such as NASA’s Aura, carry instruments like the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). OMI, along with European-launched satellites such as the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) and the Scanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CartograpHY (SCIAMACHY), and the newest generation TROPOspheric Monitoring instrument (TROPOMI), all orbit the Earth, collecting data during daylight hours when sunlight is interacting with the atmosphere over a particular location.

In a recent paper from Fiore’s group, former graduate student Xiaomeng Jin (now a postdoc at the University of California at Berkeley), demonstrated that she could bring together and “beat down the noise in the data,” as Fiore says, to identify trends in ozone formation chemistry over several U.S. metropolitan areas that “are consistent with our on-the-ground understanding from in situ ozone measurements.”

“This finding implies that we can use these records to learn about changes in surface ozone chemistry in places where we lack on-the-ground monitoring,” says Fiore. Extracting these signals by stringing together satellite data — OMI, GOME, and SCIAMACHY — to produce a two-decade record required reconciling the instruments’ differing orbit days, times, and fields of view on the ground, or spatial resolutions. 

Currently, spectrometer instruments aboard satellites are retrieving data once per day. However, newer instruments, such as the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer launched in February 2020 by the National Institute of Environmental Research in the Ministry of Environment of South Korea, will monitor a particular region continuously, providing much more data in real time.

Over North America, the Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution Search (TEMPO) collaboration between NASA and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, led by Kelly Chance of Harvard University, will provide not only a stationary view of the atmospheric chemistry over the continent, but also a finer-resolution view — with the instrument recording pollution data from only a few square miles per pixel (with an anticipated launch in 2022).

“What we’re very excited about is the opportunity to have continuous coverage where we get hourly measurements that allow us to follow pollution from morning rush hour through the course of the day and see how plumes of pollution are evolving in real time,” says Fiore.

Data for the people

Providing Earth-observing data to people in addition to scientists — namely environmental managers, city planners, and other government officials — is the goal for the NASA Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team (HAQAST).

Since 2016, Fiore has been part of HAQAST, including collaborative “tiger teams” — projects that bring together scientists, nongovernment entities, and government officials — to bring data to bear on real issues.

For example, in 2017, Fiore led a tiger team that provided guidance to state air management agencies on how satellite data can be incorporated into state implementation plans (SIPs). “Submission of a SIP is required for any state with a region in non-attainment of U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standards to demonstrate their approach to achieving compliance with the standard,” says Fiore. “What we found is that small tweaks in, for example, the metrics we use to convey the science findings, can go a long way to making the science more usable, especially when there are detailed policy frameworks in place that must be followed.”

Now, in 2021, Fiore is part of two tiger teams announced by HAQAST in late September. One team is looking at data to address environmental justice issues, by providing data to assess communities disproportionately affected by environmental health risks. Such information can be used to estimate the benefits of governmental investments in environmental improvements for disproportionately burdened communities. The other team is looking at urban emissions of nitrogen oxides to try to better quantify and communicate uncertainties in the estimates of anthropogenic sources of pollution.

“For our HAQAST work, we’re looking at not just the estimate of the exposure to air pollutants, or in other words their concentrations,” says Fiore, “but how confident are we in our exposure estimates, which in turn affect our understanding of the public health burden due to exposure. We have stakeholder partners at the New York Department of Health who will pair exposure datasets with health data to help prioritize decisions around public health.

“I enjoy working with stakeholders who have questions that require science to answer and can make a difference in their decisions.” Fiore says.

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Originally Appeared Here