Chemical explosion, COVID-19, and environmental justice: Insights from low-cost air quality sensors.
Sci Total Environ
; 849: 157881, 2022 Nov 25.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2049903
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
To examine the impact of the Intercontinental Terminals Company (ITC) fire and COVID-19 on airborne particulate matter (PM) concentrations and the PM disproportionally affecting communities in Houston using low-cost sensors.METHODS:
We compared measurements from a network of low-cost sensors with a separate network of monitors from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Houston metropolitan area from Mar 18, 2019, to Dec 31, 2020. Further, we examined the associations between neighborhood-level sociodemographic status and air pollution patterns by linking the low-cost sensor data to EPA environmental justice screening and mapping systems.FINDINGS:
We found increased PM levels during ITC fire and pre-COVID-19, and lower PM levels after the COVID-19 lockdown, comparable to observations from the regulatory monitors, with higher variations and a greater number of locations with high PM levels detected. In addition, the environmental justice analysis showed positive associations between higher PM levels and the percentage of minority, low-income population, and demographic index. IMPLICATION Our study indicates that low-cost sensors provide pollutant measures with higher spatial variations and a better ability to identify hot spots and high peak concentrations. These advantages provide critical information for disaster response and environmental justice studies. SYNOPSIS We used measurements from a low-cost sensor network for air pollution monitoring and environmental justice analysis to examine the impact of anthropogenic and natural disasters.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Air Pollutants
/
Air Pollution
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Sci Total Environ
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.scitotenv.2022.157881
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