To better provide air quality information to the community, Northern Nevada Public Health (NNPH) has recently received 16 additional air sensors to help fill in the gaps where data has historically been missing, such as lower income neighborhoods.
They say air sensors are a low-cost way for them to measure pollutants in the air by using light scattering.
"So for the air sensors, and this one specifically, what it does is they use what's called light scattering and there's two of them within the sensor, and again they kind of compare to one another and make sure that they're both functioning, but again the light kind of balances off the particular matter and it kind of correlates back to a concentration in the air," said Francisco Vega, director of air quality management for NNPH.
Vega says there are currently about one to two-hundred air sensors in Washoe County. He tells us each air sensor can cost around a few hundred dollars. NNPH has been able to fund these new sensors from air quality penalties.
"One thing that me and my team have been trying to do since I started back in 2019 is find ways to drive value back into the community. And this is a really good example of that where we were able to turn penalties associated with air quality violations into these sixteen sensors," he explains.
Vega says they recognize there are gaps within their monitoring network such as lower income areas, which is why all of the new sensors have been placed in those gaps.
"Air quality can vary from a hundred feet to a mile so the more information and data we can get out there the better it's going to help citizens of Washoe County protect their health," he said.
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