Air Quality Inquiry

Name ________________________

Air QualityEPA AirData

I. Learning Objectives

This laboratory exercise will meet the following learning objectives. Students will: describe various parameters of air quality, list priority pollutants, and interpret the

EPA Air Quality Index identify an air quality problem that varies on spatial and/or temporal scales use the US EPA Airdata website data mining tools generate air quality research questions to ask of available US EPA Airdata collect appropriate US EPA Airdata information needed to answer those questions interpret data and draw conclusions regarding air quality communicate results in the form of a scientific paper

II. Preparing for this lab

To prepare for this lab, complete the following assignments: Read this entire laboratory handout before coming to lab Read the assigned article (Gammon, 2012) Pollution, Poverty, People of

Color: Asthma and the Inner City by Crystal Gammon http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/pollution-poverty-people-color-asthma-inner-city/

Complete Check Yourself Questions (optional): prepare for jigsaw activity by reading your assigned portion of

the Stanek et al. 2011 paper. Come to class prepared to discuss your portion of the article

III. Background

Air Pollution

Air pollution describes gases and particulate matter in the air that can cause harm to living organisms (humans, animals, or plants) or the physical environment. Pollution can originate from natural sources like volcanoes or from human activities like energy production.

There are five major pollutants released directly into the atmosphere that are known to pose a health risk - carbon monoxide (CO), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particulate matter (PM), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOX). These are called primary air pollutants. Some of these primary pollutants mix together and in the presence of sunlight, form new compounds called secondary pollutants. Ozone is an example of a secondary pollutant.

The U.S. Environmental Pollution Agency (US EPA) is a federal agency charged with establishing legal air quality standards. The EPA sets national air quality standards for six common pollutants, called criteria pollutants, to protect public health. Monitoring sites report data to EPA for these six criteria air pollutants:

Ozone (O3)

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Lead (Pb)Sulfur Dioxide (SO2)Particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5)Carbon Monoxide (CO)Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2)

Effects on Human Biology

Many of pollutant that humans are exposed to through the air are capable of modifying human physiological systems. Examples of effects on human biology include effects on cardiac function, cancer rates, growth, sperm quality, changes in fertility and pregnancy outcomes, obesity, diabetes, respiratory ailments, rates of sexual maturation, and cognitive function, (for examples see: Schell and Denham, 2003; Kampa and Castanas, 2008; Schell et al., 2010; Anderson et al., 2012, Frutos et al., 2015, Bos et al., 2014, Staneck et al. 2011).

Air Quality and the Air Quality Index (AQI)

Air quality describes the quality of the air in relation to impacts on environmental and human health. Air Quality tells us how healthy the air is for both human and environmental health. Bad air quality means that breathing the air can potentially harm living organisms.

The AQI is an index for reporting daily air quality. It is calculated based on the levels of five pollutants in the air:

ground-level ozone, particle pollution, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide.

Monitors across the country record the concentrations of these pollutants each day. The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of air pollution and the greater the health concerns.

From the U.S. government website on Air Quality (AirNow.gov), listing six categories of AQI:

"Good" AQI is 0 - 50. Air quality is considered satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk.

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"Moderate" AQI is 51 - 100. Air quality is acceptable; however, for some pollutants there may be a moderate health concern for a very small number of people. For example, people who are unusually sensitive to ozone may experience respiratory symptoms.

"Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups" AQI is 101 - 150. Although general public is not likely to be affected at this AQI range, people with lung disease, older adults and children are at a greater risk from exposure to ozone, whereas persons with heart and lung disease, older adults and children are at greater risk from the presence of particles in the air. .

"Unhealthy" AQI is 151 - 200. Everyone may begin to experience some adverse health effects, and members of the sensitive groups may experience more serious effects. .

"Very Unhealthy" AQI is 201 - 300. This would trigger a health alert signifying that everyone may experience more serious health effects.

"Hazardous" AQI greater than 300. This would trigger a health warning of emergency conditions. The entire population is more likely to be affected.

~Above descriptions from http://www.airnow.gov/?action=aqibasics.aqi

IV. Check Yourself 1) What is the difference between a primary pollutant and a secondary pollutant?

2) List the six common pollutants for which the EPA has developed national standards.

3) For the month of July 2012, Los Angeles, California reported an average daily AQI of 158. For this same month, Chicago, Illinois reported an average daily AQI of 142. Which city appears to have the greater amount of air pollution? What are some potential causes for this difference?

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ill be turned in to your TA

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4) From the Scientific American reading, name some of the the air pollutants thought to contribute to human suffering in East St. Louis. Which four pollutants are found at high levels in East St. Louis that have known mechanisms by which they make asthma worse?V. Getting to know the AirData website

A) The AirData website is a website developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to give the public access to air quality data collected at outdoor monitors across the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U. S. Virgin Islands.

Go to:

http://www.epa.gov/airdata/index.html

Click on the Interactive Map.

The Interactive Map can be used to gather pollutant information for specific monitoring sites.

From this screen, you can see where air quality

monitors are located, you can get information about

the spatial location of monitors for a particular monitoring network, and,

you can download pollutant data for specific monitoring sites.

You can select one or more monitoring networks for a particular pollutant from the list on the right side of the map.

Note that the locations of monitoring sites could be different for different pollutants.

To select a spatial area of interest, zoom into the area of interest. You can then click on one of the monitoring sites to gather information about that monitoring site and to download the pollution data for that site.

In this laboratory exercise you will be asked to use the data available in the AirData website to address a question you pose about air pollution. What follows is an example of such a question and how one might use the data available to address this question.

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Air Quality Inquiry

B) Example Use of Interactive Map – Phillips Neighborhood in Minneapolis, MN

The Phillips Neighborhood in Minneapolis, MN has one of the highest concentrations of low income and minority children in the State of Minnesota. It is the site of a foundry, an asphalt plant, a roofing company's hot tar storage facility and the asphalt hot-mix storage facility for the City of Minneapolis Public Works Department. These are sources of sulfates, particulate matter and other pollution.

In 2007, Kandiyohi Development Partners proposed to build a wood-burning Power Plant in the middle of this residential area. This project, the Midtown EcoEnergy Biomass Plant, proposed to burn wood to produce electricity and hot water for heat in the region. This would have added pollutants, like fine particle matter and volatile organic compounds, to the atmospheric pollution already existing in the region.

Neighborhood, environmental and governmental groups came together to stop the new construction, pass legislation to restrict the allowable density of pollutant-emitting businesses in one neighborhood and to work towards reducing the pollution already existing in this particular neighborhood.

Did these efforts succeed in stopping the increased atmospheric pollution and reducing atmospheric pollution in the area? This question can be addressed by downloading pollutant information from the AirData website and looking at trends in pollution for this area over time.

The steps for determining pollution trends over time for a specific area are:

1) In the Interactive Map, zoom into the area of interest. For this example, the boundaries of the Phillips Neighborhood in Minneapolis, MN are:

North: 22nd Street ESouth: E. Lake StreetEast: Hiawatha AvenueWest: I-35W

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Air Quality Inquiry

2) after you have zoomed in to the area of interest, on the right side of the Interactive Map, click on the pollutant(s) of interest to show the monitors available in the area,

3) click on the monitor of interest. When the monitor’s information box opens, scroll down to the bottom to find a list of the years that the pollutant was measured for that site,

4) for each year of interest, click on that year, download the data, and pull out the pollution information to analyze.

Important: If you want Daily values, make sure you download the “Daily” data. In the “Annual” data sheets, there is only one yearly summary row for each pollutant.

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5) When you download the data, carefully examine the column headings so that you understand what is in each column. A good strategy is to copy only those columns that you need into a new worksheet, either in the current Excel workbook, or into a new Excel workbook. If you need help, ask a classmate or the TA.

Here’s an example of the 2002 PM2.5 data downloaded from the above monitoring site.

Note that you will need to find the pollutant of interest listed under the column labeled as “Parameter Name.” Other useful columns include: Date, Day in Year, Units of Measure and Arithmetic Mean (the measured value).

There are a variety of other measurements that are listed under “Parameter Name.” You might find some additional interesting and useful pollution measurements to add to your data analysis.

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Air Quality Inquiry

6) These data can be used to compare two different locations. As an example, the monitored pollution in the Phillips Neighborhood can be compared to pollution levels in the more affluent St. Louis Park area.

This is a graph of PM2.5 values measured in the Phillips Neighborhood (dashed line) versus those found in St. Louis Park, MN area (solid line). During this time period (May, 2001), levels of atmospheric fine particulate matter were almost always higher in the Phillips Neighborhood.

7) These data can also be used to compare two different time periods. For the Phillips Neighborhood, graphing the monitored sulfate levels reveals that comparing 2002 and 2012, most monitored sulfates levels were lower in 2012.

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8) Think about the above two figures. What would you conclude from them? How could the analysis be improved? Would including more date be helpful?

VI. Lab Assignment

For this lab, you will generate a question that can be asked and answered with data from this website. For your written lab assignment you will write a brief report using the template below. In short, you will include your question, your reason for asking that question, a methods and results section, and a brief discussion of your conclusions.

You can manipulate and graph your data in any software of your choice. If you choose to graph in Excel and need help with creating an Excel graph, read Appendix I below. You can also ask other classmates or your TA for help.

A) Example Questions

There are a variety of questions that can be asked of monitored pollution data. You need to be specific about what you are asking and why.

Examples include:

1) What are the differences in summer/fall/annual (pick a time frame) of XYZ pollutant (pick one or more pollutants) between explicitly chosen two (or more) cities?

Note that this type of question needs to be more specific – for example - you could examine and compare high population cities (ex: Los Angeles, CA or Chicago, IL), or small, rural towns or cities.

You should state a reason for asking the question – for example: Given the concerns about air pollution from frac sand mining, what is the difference in particulate matter pollution between monitoring stations adjacent to a silica sand mining operation compared to those farther away from these operations?

2) You could also choose one location and ask what the changes in certain pollutants might be over time. For example, you might ask what the difference is in atmospheric ozone levels for Duluth, Minnesota between 1990 and 2010. Your reason for asking could be to see the impacts of a rise in population or increased road traffic.

You would pull the appropriate data out of the AirData website and answer your question by analyzing the data to see if ozone has decreased or increased over that time period.

U.S. Census data provides some helpful maps that can give you special information about factors that might affect air quality such as population density, age, race, agricultural status, income, etc. See the following links for examples of some of the data available and feel free to explore other sources as well. https://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/maps/thematic.html www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/maps/datamapper.html

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B) Brainstorm Some Questions

In your group, brainstorm some questions that investigate air pollution in different spatial locations or over varying time scales. Ask your TA for help as needed. Decide on a final question and what data you will need to address that question. Then use the tools on the AirData website to pull the data needed to answer your question.

A template for your lab report is provided below. In short your lab report should include your group’s question, your motivation for asking the question, the data that you pulled from the AirData website that address your question, a figure showing the results of your inquiry, and a half-page write-up discussing what you found and what you conclude.

VII. Template for Lab Report

IntroductionWhat question did you ask? What was your motivation or reasoning for asking this

question?

Methods (see guide to Methods and Results sections)What data did you gather? (Provide enough information that someone could find this

same data, but do not provide click-by-click instructions).

Results (see guide to Methods and Results sections)What do the data look like? What are the trends or patterns? Include a well-formatted

figure with axes labeled and caption and legends as appropriate.

DiscussionWhat conclusions can you draw from your study?

POINTS FOR EPA AIRDATA LAB

Possible Points Your Score

Pre-lab questions 6 ______________Lab report (see rubric) 24 ______________Total 30 ______________

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TOTAL: ___/24

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Section Item Below Expectations Developing Exemplary -3 or more -1 or -2 Full credit

ScoreIntroduction Question

askedQuestion is unclear or not answerable with data available

Question is clearly stated and is answerable using available data.

/3

Rationale or motivation

Rationale is poorly explained or it seems that it is poorly reasoned

Rationale is clearly explained and logical. /3

Methods Data collected Several important steps or aspects of the experiment are missing. Experiment could not be repeated by someone else because of lack of detail or clarity.

Well-written in an appropriate format. All important aspects of experiment are covered. Organization is clear and logical.

/2

Analysis Methods described would not be sufficient to answer the group’s question, or have obvious flaws in terms of experimental design, replicates, etc.

Methods are a logical way to study the question the group is investigating.

/2

Results Text:Findings & observations

Many/most important observations are not included. Trends and patterns in data are not highlighted. Excessive extraneous information is included.

Important observations are included. Important and interesting trends and patterns in the data are pointed out. Writing is concise and precise.

/4

Presentation of data (data figure)

Data are either not presented or presented in a very confusing way so the reader does not know the actual result of the experiment.

Data are presented in a clear and logical way through the use of text descriptions, figures, and/or tables

/4

Discussion Conclusions Conclusions are not logical or far overreach the limitations of the study.

Logical conclusions are drawn, without overreaching what can be concluded from this study. Limitations of the study are acknowledged.

/4

Overall Written in a confusing way. Inaccurate or imprecise use of language.

Writing is clear and easy to read. Scientific terminology (hypothesis, replicates, controls) is used correctly. Or experiment shows extra creativity, or excellence that is not represented in above metrics.

/2

Air Quality Inquiry

References

Anderson, J.O., J.G. Thundiyil and A. Stolbach. 2012. Clearing the air: a review of particulate matter air pollution on human health. Journal of Medical Toxicology. 8(2): 166-175.

Bos, I., De Boever, P., Int Panis, L., Meeusen, R. 2014. Physical Activity, Air Pollution and the Brain. Sports Medicine. 44: 1505-1518.

Frutos, V., González-Comadrán, M., Solà, I., Jacquemin, B., Carreras, R., and Checa Vizcaíno, M. 2015. Impact of air pollution on fertility: a systematic review. Gynecological Endocrinology. 31(1): 7-13.

Gammon, G. 2012. Pollution, Poverty and People of Color: Asthma and the Inner City. Scientific American. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/pollution-poverty-people-color-asthma-inner-city/. Last accessed 16 February 2015.

Kampa, M. and E. Castanas. 2008. Human health effects of air pollution. Environmental Pollution. 151:362-367.

Schell, L.M. and M. Denham. 2003. Environmental pollution in urban environments and human biology. Annual Review of Anthropology. 32:111-134.

Schell, L.M., K.K. Burnitz and P.W. Lathrop. 2010. Pollution and human biology. Annals of Human Biology. 37(3):347-366.

Stanek, L., Brown, J., Stanek, J., Gift, J., and Cotsta, D. 2011. Air Pollution Toxicology – A Brief Review of the Role of the Science in Shaping the Current Understanding of Airpollution Health Risks. Toxicological Sciences. 120 (S1) S8-S27

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