July 25, 2021
How Air Quality Affects Health at a Local Level & What You Can Do About It
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JustAir started with a few monitors and text alerts to help our neighbors know when air quality was poor. Five years later, we’ve built tools that improved accessibility and quality. Our platform now supports over 30 air quality programs across 13 states and helps thousands of people make sense of their air. We’ve learned so much throughout this journey and here are five lessons that stand out as I look back on the first five years of JustAir and look ahead on how to shape the future of clean air action.
People make decisions on data. A parent keeps a kid inside on a day that was fine. An industrial permit gets approved on an incomplete dataset. A community cries foul on a reading that turns out to be a faulty sensor and loses credibility. Trust is the foundation of this work and without it, data may do more harm than good.
Too many communities are learning that change takes more than buying a sensor and collecting readings. Keeping data trustworthy and actually using it is where the real value lives. When data goes unused, money is spent on hardware but the problem is still there. The value isn’t in collecting the data, it’s in using it.
We built quality-assurance tools, data standardization, and public engagement tools alongside partners, mentors, and clients who shared expertise and inspired us to build something that didn’t exist. Community air programs build coalitions of residents, government, and researchers to collect and use data for change. Change can only occur when we collaborate.
For years, agencies, industries and communities came to the table with different numbers and got stuck arguing about whether there was even a problem. When partners work from the same trusted dataset, the argument ends and the problem-solving begins.
An AQI color on a map and an alert are helpful but aren't enough to create lasting change. We have to rethink our approach to support community decision making. Tools that can tell the difference between a bad sensor and a real pollution event - or tools that give us a better understanding of where pollution comes from and where it is headed - will help communities focus on action. Our vision of a clean air future depends on our ability to make decisions rooted in evidence we trust.
I started JustAir to make sure everyday people are aware of what they are breathing but awareness isn’t enough. Our goal for the next phase of JustAir is to help our partners turn air quality data into decisions, decisions into actions, and actions into lasting change.
We know that difficult things are built in partnership so if you want to work together on this vision, please reach out.
With gratitude,
Darren
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