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Establishing a Community Air Monitoring Network in a Wildfire Smoke-Prone Rural Community: The Motivations, Experiences, Challenges, and Ideas of Clean Air Methow’s Clean Air Ambassadors

In response to wildfire-related air quality issues as well as those associated with winter wood stove use and prescribed and agricultural burning, Clean Air Methow’s Clean Air Ambassador program established a community air monitoring network (CAMN) to provide geospatially specific air quality inform...

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Autores principales: Durkin, Amanda, Gonzalez, Rico, Isaksen, Tania Busch, Walker, Elizabeth, Errett, Nicole A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7697345/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33202742
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228393
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author Durkin, Amanda
Gonzalez, Rico
Isaksen, Tania Busch
Walker, Elizabeth
Errett, Nicole A.
author_facet Durkin, Amanda
Gonzalez, Rico
Isaksen, Tania Busch
Walker, Elizabeth
Errett, Nicole A.
author_sort Durkin, Amanda
collection PubMed
description In response to wildfire-related air quality issues as well as those associated with winter wood stove use and prescribed and agricultural burning, Clean Air Methow’s Clean Air Ambassador program established a community air monitoring network (CAMN) to provide geospatially specific air quality information and supplement data generated by the two Washington State Department of Ecology nephelometers situated in the area. Clean Air Ambassadors (CAAs) were purposefully selected to host low-cost air sensors based on their geographic location and interest in air quality. All 18 CAAs were interviewed to understand their motivations for participation, experiences using the data, challenges encountered, and recommendations for future project directions. Interview transcripts were coded, and a qualitative analysis approach was used to identify the key themes in each domain. The reported motivations for participation as a CAA included reducing personal exposure, protecting sensitive populations, interest in air quality or environmental science, and providing community benefits. CAAs used CAMN data to understand air quality conditions, minimize personal or familial exposure, and engage other community members in air quality discussions. Opportunities for future project directions included use for monitoring other seasonal air quality issues, informing or reducing other pollution-generating activities, school and community educational activities, opportunities for use by and engagement of different stakeholder groups, and mobile-friendly access to CAMN information. Limited challenges associated with participation were reported. Additional research is necessary to understand the community-level impacts of the CAMN. The findings may be informative for other rural wildfire smoke-prone communities establishing similar CAMNs.
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spelling pubmed-76973452020-11-29 Establishing a Community Air Monitoring Network in a Wildfire Smoke-Prone Rural Community: The Motivations, Experiences, Challenges, and Ideas of Clean Air Methow’s Clean Air Ambassadors Durkin, Amanda Gonzalez, Rico Isaksen, Tania Busch Walker, Elizabeth Errett, Nicole A. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article In response to wildfire-related air quality issues as well as those associated with winter wood stove use and prescribed and agricultural burning, Clean Air Methow’s Clean Air Ambassador program established a community air monitoring network (CAMN) to provide geospatially specific air quality information and supplement data generated by the two Washington State Department of Ecology nephelometers situated in the area. Clean Air Ambassadors (CAAs) were purposefully selected to host low-cost air sensors based on their geographic location and interest in air quality. All 18 CAAs were interviewed to understand their motivations for participation, experiences using the data, challenges encountered, and recommendations for future project directions. Interview transcripts were coded, and a qualitative analysis approach was used to identify the key themes in each domain. The reported motivations for participation as a CAA included reducing personal exposure, protecting sensitive populations, interest in air quality or environmental science, and providing community benefits. CAAs used CAMN data to understand air quality conditions, minimize personal or familial exposure, and engage other community members in air quality discussions. Opportunities for future project directions included use for monitoring other seasonal air quality issues, informing or reducing other pollution-generating activities, school and community educational activities, opportunities for use by and engagement of different stakeholder groups, and mobile-friendly access to CAMN information. Limited challenges associated with participation were reported. Additional research is necessary to understand the community-level impacts of the CAMN. The findings may be informative for other rural wildfire smoke-prone communities establishing similar CAMNs. MDPI 2020-11-13 2020-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7697345/ /pubmed/33202742 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228393 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Durkin, Amanda
Gonzalez, Rico
Isaksen, Tania Busch
Walker, Elizabeth
Errett, Nicole A.
Establishing a Community Air Monitoring Network in a Wildfire Smoke-Prone Rural Community: The Motivations, Experiences, Challenges, and Ideas of Clean Air Methow’s Clean Air Ambassadors
title Establishing a Community Air Monitoring Network in a Wildfire Smoke-Prone Rural Community: The Motivations, Experiences, Challenges, and Ideas of Clean Air Methow’s Clean Air Ambassadors
title_full Establishing a Community Air Monitoring Network in a Wildfire Smoke-Prone Rural Community: The Motivations, Experiences, Challenges, and Ideas of Clean Air Methow’s Clean Air Ambassadors
title_fullStr Establishing a Community Air Monitoring Network in a Wildfire Smoke-Prone Rural Community: The Motivations, Experiences, Challenges, and Ideas of Clean Air Methow’s Clean Air Ambassadors
title_full_unstemmed Establishing a Community Air Monitoring Network in a Wildfire Smoke-Prone Rural Community: The Motivations, Experiences, Challenges, and Ideas of Clean Air Methow’s Clean Air Ambassadors
title_short Establishing a Community Air Monitoring Network in a Wildfire Smoke-Prone Rural Community: The Motivations, Experiences, Challenges, and Ideas of Clean Air Methow’s Clean Air Ambassadors
title_sort establishing a community air monitoring network in a wildfire smoke-prone rural community: the motivations, experiences, challenges, and ideas of clean air methow’s clean air ambassadors
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7697345/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33202742
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228393
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