SOUTH WARD INFORGRAPHIC
The South Ward is an “environmental justice” community, defined by disproportionate environmental stressors. The Port of New York and New Jersey is in the backyard of the South Ward and is the third largest seaport in the United States. Over 25,000 truck trips occur daily which exacerbates wheezing, asthma, and other forms of respiratory distress. Hotspots include the Dayton Street, Weequahic, and Clinton Hill neighborhoods, contributing to 16% of residents having asthma, when compared to 8% county and nationwide. Furthermore, the South Ward contains eight major highways, allowing even more trucks to roll through daily, idle on roadways, and affect the public health of residents living in the South Ward.
All that is required to set up a PurpleAir is: stable WiFi and an outdoor power supply. Data is also stored locally on a microSD card. For sensors with WiFi, data is streamed to the PurpleAir CrowdMap.
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While government air monitoring stations are PURPLEAIR CROWDMAP maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), they are sporadic, extremely expensive and require a lot of maintenance. To address this challenge, low cost, easy-to-use air quality sensors present revolutionary shift in air pollution monitoring.
The PurpleAir sensor determines particulate matter (PM) concentration: PM2.5 are particles that can cause respiratory distress by entering the lungs and bloodstream. The South Ward Environmental Alliance is using PurpleAir sensors to track the air quality in our neighborhoods.
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