Air Quality Inquiry
Air Quality
EPA AirData
Name ________________________
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-peoplecolor-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:
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Air Quality Inquiry
Ozone (O3)
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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Air Quality Inquiry
 "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
This page will be turned in to your TA
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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Air Quality Inquiry
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.
B) Example Use of Interactive Map – Phillips Neighborhood in Minneapolis, MN
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Air Quality Inquiry
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:
South:
East:
West:
22nd Street E
E. Lake Street
Hiawatha Avenue
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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Air Quality Inquiry
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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Air Quality Inquiry
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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Air Quality Inquiry
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
Introduction
What 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.
Discussion
What conclusions can you draw from your study?
POINTS FOR EPA AIRDATA LAB
Pre-lab questions
Lab report (see rubric)
Total
Possible Points
Your Score
6
24
30
______________
______________
______________
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Air Quality Inquiry
Section
Item
Below Expectations
-3 or more
Developing
-1 or -2
Exemplary
Full credit
Score
Introduction
Methods
Question
asked
Rationale or
motivation
Data collected
Analysis
Results
Text:
Findings &
observations
Presentation
of data (data
figure)
Discussion
Overall
Conclusions
Question is unclear or not answerable
with data available
Rationale is poorly explained or it seems
that it is poorly reasoned
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.
Methods described would not be
sufficient to answer the group’s
question, or have obvious flaws in terms
of experimental design, replicates, etc.
Many/most important observations are
not included. Trends and patterns in
data are not highlighted. Excessive
extraneous information is included.
Data are either not presented or
presented in a very confusing way so the
reader does not know the actual result of
the experiment.
Conclusions are not logical or far
overreach the limitations of the study.
Written in a confusing way. Inaccurate
or imprecise use of language.
Question is clearly stated and is answerable
using available data.
Rationale is clearly explained and logical.
/3
Well-written in an appropriate format. All
important aspects of experiment are covered.
Organization is clear and logical.
/2
Methods are a logical way to study the
question the group is investigating.
/2
Important observations are included.
Important and interesting trends and
patterns in the data are pointed out. Writing
is concise and precise.
Data are presented in a clear and logical way
through the use of text descriptions, figures,
and/or tables
/4
Logical conclusions are drawn, without
overreaching what can be concluded from
this study. Limitations of the study are
acknowledged.
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.
/4
TOTAL: ___/24
11
/3
/4
/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-asthmainner-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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