Each morning, hundreds of Berkeley students face an awful predicament that makes  them ask: what will the weather be like today, and what should I wear to deal with such weather? Of course, when deciding between a tank-top and a long-sleeve, the mobile weather app is key. What many people don’t realize is that the weather app also discloses information about air quality, specifically AQI. On campus, AQI might range from good, to moderate, or even unhealthy. But, what do the standards for air quality actually mean and how can they affect daily life?

What is AQI? AQI stands for Air Quality Index, which measures ambient air quality by assigning a number of 0-500 to the concentration of five main toxicants. These toxicants, usually found in air pollution include ground-level ozone, particulate matter (including PM2.5 and PM10), carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. The majority of air pollution in the US is made up of ground-level ozone emitted from gas-vehicles, and particulate matter formed through complex chemical reactions with other pollutants. The higher the concentration of pollutants, the higher the AQI will be. 

There are six AQI categories ranging from “Good” to “Hazardous.” These categories correspond to an AQI score range. For example, an AQI score of 0-50 is “Good” AQI. Each of these categories are color-coded from green to maroon on a scale of air toxicity (green meaning good and maroon meaning hazardous.) In this way, someone can easily distinguish differences in air quality when looking at a region on a weather app. Depending on your personal risk level, each category also dictates how susceptible you might be to the current air quality. The higher the AQI, the more likely people are to experience symptoms. At-risk populations, such as immunocompromised folks who might have illnesses such as heart disease and asthma, are at a greater risk of health complications as AQI increases. 

How aware are people about the AQI? According to a recent study by the National Center for Environmental Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 53% of the study sample were aware of AQI alerts on their mobile devices and nearly 30% believed that air quality where they lived was poor in the last year. Yet, only 14% actually changed their behavior in response to such notifications. 

Is it reasonable though for people to change their behavior in response to poor air quality? What if poor air quality is simply a result of where you live? A comparative study of air quality between the Bay Area and other nearby counties found that there were large differences in mortality, due to poor air quality, on a neighborhood level. The study found that between 9 counties in the Bay Area, ambient concentrations of nitrous oxides, ground-level ozone, and PM2.5 varied widely. Air quality was nearly 14x worse in Alameda than in Napa, the county with the next highest AQI. In the city of Oakland, concentration of nitrous oxides was 67% higher than the rest of the county on average. This is likely due to West Oakland’s proximity to  ports, highways, and industrial activity, which generally worsens air quality. Areas with higher air pollution have higher mortality rates due to poor air quality.

Due to historical limits in housing, marginalized communities are on average more exposed to these neighborhood-level toxicants. Minorities are often pushed towards cheaper housing which usually exposes them to higher levels of toxicants, leading to worse health outcomes for these communities. The inequities in air quality experienced between racial and ethnic groups are visible on a block-by-block basis. In a recent study conducted in four counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, researchers found that Black and Hispanic populations were exposed to nitrous oxides and other toxicants nearly 8–30% more frequently than the population average. Conversely, white populations had 9–14% less exposure than the population average. Areas where Black and Hispanic populations are concentrated experience higher levels of air pollution. This research also focused on hyperlocal air pollution– air pollution that changes depending on small factors like time of day, and unique street-level characteristics. For example, on streets with stop signs cars will linger and then accelerate causing higher rates of aerosols in the air. The intersection between hyperlocal air pollution and the larger neighborhood characteristics, like if there is an industrial warehouse, a factory, or heavy traffic congestion nearby, creates a complex web of air pollution causes. But why are certain neighborhoods, concentrated with communities of color, more likely to have these characteristics that create hyperlocal and local air pollution? 

Dr. Danny Wilson, CEO of Geocene and lecturer at UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering, describes how, “if you live in a place next to the freeway, with a lot of noise pollution, near a recycling facility, and you have the money to move away, you might.” With a high rate of people moving in and out of a region, there is often little community pushback to a new industrial facility, and often people aren’t planning to stay around long enough to try and change a policy. Dr. Wilson continues to say that “if you are trying to get a dirtier industrial facility sited… the power of NIMBY’s are a very powerful force, and it’s easier for certain communities to keep undesirable polluting industries away from their neighborhoods.” 

NIMBY stands for “Not In My Backyard,” and refers to individuals who don’t want an industrial facility to be built near them. However, NIMBYs show little to no objection to that same type of facility being put elsewhere, usually in poor communities of color. In the Bay, the “powerful force” of NIMBY’s dates back to a zoning law called CEQA, The California Environmental Quality Act signed in 1970 by then Governor Reagan. CEQA essentially requires that any infrastructure projects in California first need to undergo an environmental review. “What certain communities have done is co-opt that environmental review process to waylay projects they don’t like,” explains Dr. Wilson. Of course these communities are made of “typically older, richer, people [who] have a lot more time on their hands.” Unwilling to deal with the hassle of these well-funded communities, developers choose to put these facilities in the neighborhoods of marginalized people instead. This selective placement of polluting infrastructure accounts for one large reason for why there are higher rates of air pollution and poor health outcomes within these marginalized neighborhoods.  As more research comes out about hyperlocal air pollution, and the disproportionate effect it has on minority communities, more attention and funding is going towards eliminating these disparities. One approach by the West Oakland Community Action Steering Committee focuses on a community-centered approach to setting higher air quality standards in West Oakland. The plan includes moving polluting businesses farther from residential areas, making the near-by port zero-emission, funding clean trucks, increasing inspections on industrial facilities, improving the transit service to disincentive car driving, and eliminating backyard burning. Community-centered approaches like these are key to understanding the demands of the people who live in polluted areas. We must continue to advocate for these communities, and pressure developers into following more stringent pollution regulations. By uplifting the voices of those who are most affected by poor air quality, we can begin to change the status-quo and promote better health outcomes in marginalized communities. So, next time you’re looking at your weather app, remember the importance of AQI, hold your legislators accountable, and look to community leaders to fight back against polluting infrastructure.