Wildfire Smoke Is Getting Worse — Here's What You Need to Know

Think Your Indoor Air Is Clean? Check Again.

Most people picture air pollution as something that happens outside—traffic exhaust, factory smoke, wildfire haze drifting in from somewhere else. And the outdoor picture is gen...

When Fresh Scents Turn Toxic: How Candles and Incense Impact Your Health

Candles, incense, and air fresheners are beloved for creating ambiance and masking odors, but many of these seemingly harmless products release hidden pollutants into your indoor air.

What Do Those Colored Dots Mean? Understanding the Air Quality Index (AQI)

Have you ever opened the AirCasting map, seen those brightly colored dots, and wondered what they mean? Each dot shows the local air quality, scored on the Air Quality Index (AQI). Once you can read the colors, you can make smarter, healthier choices about the air around you.

Breathing Easier: How Green Spaces Shape Air Quality in Jordan’s Cities

In Jordan’s semi-arid cities like Amman and Irbid, green spaces do more than offer recreation—they help improve public health by reducing pollution. Researchers used the AirBeam to ask: do greener neighborhoods have cleaner air?

Louisiana’s Ban on Community Air Monitoring is an Attack on Science & Free Speech

Louisiana legislators passed a “million-dollar muzzle,” which barred the use of community-gathered air-quality data to advocate for pollution control and enforcement, with fines as high as $1 million per violation.

AirBeam Mini vs. PurpleAir: The Clear Choice for Clean Air Monitoring

When it comes to air quality monitoring, there’s no shortage of options, but not all monitors are built with you in mind. If you’re looking for a monitor that’s accurate, mobile...

The Empowering Virtues of Citizen Science: Claiming Clean Air in Brussels

The AirCasting platform is used by individuals, communities, and institutions around the world to measure air pollution. In a recently published article, Nicola da Schio, a post...

Breathe Better With AirCasting Actions

AirCasting Actions is a free resource for helping you and your community actively understand the air you are breathing and start taking action to improve it. Whether you’re a co...

To Improve Children's Health, Empower Communities

Air quality is not normally one of the metrics taken into account by planners, architects, and developers when deciding what to build and where to build it but it should be. Kno...

NYC Community Organizations Use AirCasting to Study Hyperlocal Air Quality

New York City's official air monitors are too sparse to capture how pollution changes from block to block. Here is how community organizations mapped their own air, and what they found.

Government Measured Air Quality Data Now Available

Governments throughout the world employ scientists and technicians to operate and maintain networks of expensive and precise air quality instruments. The measurements from these...

Leveraging AirBeam Data to Inform Policy Decisions

Garbage zoning will dramatically reduce vehicle miles traveled by eliminating overlapping routes while serving the same business customers. Currently there are blocks in Manhatt...

AirCasting: Education Edition

In the spring we had lots of fun teaching students how to make AirCasting compatible air monitors and luminescent accessories.  For details on these educational programs, along ...

AirCasting & HabitatMap in the News!

The New York Times followed us around while we went AirCasting, then wrote a story and made a video about it. The story is excellent in that it covers not only AirCasting but a ...

My Air, My Health Challenge Update

We submitted our solution to the My Air, My Health Challenge judges a few weeks back. We won't know who won until they make the official announcement at the Health Datapalooza I...

Go With the Flow: Investigate Your Water System!

We are delighted to introduce Go With the Flow, part of HabitatMap’s MapThink Toolkit series. Go With the Flow is a short-term group research project that empowers high school s...

Now Streaming Data from the Zephyr BioHarness 3

We're happy to announce an update to the AirCasting app that includes connectivity for the Zephyr BioHarness 3. The BioHarness connects to the AirCasting app over Bluetooth, ena...

AirCasting from Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Mayeta Clark, an intern at the New York Times video desk, contacted me a few months back to discuss AirCasting. I suggested that rather than do a sit-down interview, she capture...

My Air, My Health Challenge

We're delighted to be finalists for the EPA/NIEHS/HHS sponsored My Air, My Health Challenge</. Together with researchers and engineers from Carnegie Mellon University and New...

What Goes Down Must Come Up: Addressing Vapor Intrusion in New York City

Vapor intrusion describes the process whereby volatile chemicals migrate from contaminated soil and/or groundwater and enter buildings through cracks or perforations in slabs or...

AirCasting Goes West Coast for Urban Prototyping

We had a blast last weekend in downtown San Francisco exhibiting AirCasting as part of the Urban Prototyping festival organized by the Grey Area Arts Foundation. We let folks ch...

Come EcoHack with AirCasting!

Join AirCasting at EcoHack NYC this weekend, 4/20 - 4/21. I'll be giving an ignite talk Friday night to rally contributors for Saturday's Hackathon. I've posted my ignite talk a...

Greenpeace Poison Gas Disaster Map!

This scary map from Greenpeace maps U.S. chemical plants and their potential poison gas cloud fallout zones.  Like the EPA greenhouse gas map I blogged about a few weeks back, t...

EPA Releases Greenhouse Gas Map

The EPA recently released an interactive online  greenhouse gas map that includes emissions data  for individual facilities. I've been following the evolution of the EPA's mappi...