Community-Based Air Quality Monitoring Framework

6. Actions

These resources provide a list of actions that can be taken to reduce air pollution and reduce exposure. Some actions are related to air monitoring data, and some do not require air monitoring data.

Purpose: Provide a list of actions that can be taken to reduce emissions and reduce exposures to pollution.

Resources:

• Local Action: Discusses ways to reduce personal emissions, personal exposure and spread awareness of air quality issues, with community case study examples. (SCAQMD, guidance section, 6 pages)
• Sharing Your Results and Discussing Your Project: Discusses how to work with your local regulatory agency and how to effectively communicate results and engage more community members (SCAQMD, guidance section, 4 pages)
• Take Action: Brief discussion of how air monitoring can influence personal behavioral changes (EPA, guidance section, 1 page)
• Government Roles: A webpage summarizing the different federal, state and local government agencies and their roles and jurisdictions. This is California-focused, but can be adapted for other states (CARB, webpage, 1 page)

Common challenges that these resources help address:

There are a wide variety of pollution sources and agencies responsible for addressing pollution experienced by any given community. It can be challenging to determine who is responsible for taking action and where to start working toward appropriate solutions.

Project participants may question why no regulatory or enforcement actions are being taken when air monitoring equipment detects high levels of air pollution in their communities.

These resources can help to inform project personnel regarding how results from an air quality monitoring project may be used to influence or inform policy outcomes or other potential actions to improve air quality.

Project participants may not receive results confirming pollution they expected but still have health concerns related to air pollution, including due to pollutants that were not measured by the equipment used for a monitoring project.