Dearborn launches city-wide air quality monitoring program
The program will gather data from 10 air quality monitors installed throughout the city to track key pollutants, like carbon dioxide and particulate matter.
Aerial view of the Dearborn area.
Dearborn officials announced the launch of a city-wide air quality monitoring program this week.
In partnership with Michigan-based startup JustAir, the program will gather data from 10 air quality monitors installed throughout the city to track key pollutants, including particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide.
“Dearborn families have suffered from poor air quality for decades,” Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said in a news release announcing the program. “Our partnership with JustAir to place monitors throughout the city is just one way we are working to communicate with our residents, and to make strides in improving air quality in the region.”
Ali Abazeed, Dearborn’s chief public health officer, says the program will allow residents to track air quality in real time and receive alerts when pollution levels are high.
“We aim to use that data provided to the residents of Dearborn in a way that makes sense to them; in a way that can advise them if they do have those conditions. Or if you have baseball practice today, what do I do if the Air Quality Index (AQI) is bad?” Abazeed said. “That’s the aim of the intervention.”
The system employs the AQI to summarize data, with a scale that identifies pollution levels from 0 to 500. Dearborn residents will be able to access air quality data in English and Arabic through an app developed by JustAir.
Abazeed says the program is part a broader effort that includes legal action against polluters.
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