How clean is the air on your block? Baltimore ‘citizen scientists’ build monitors to find out

Scientists know, based on data from eight monitoring stations in and around Baltimore, that smog levels are not healthy on many hot summer days.

But the air on some blocks is surely fresher than others.

Hundreds of simpler air pollution sensors will soon be scattered around the city to show where those oases lie, and what about them makes the air healthier to breathe.

The solar-powered plastic cubes, each about half the size of a toaster, will provide new data every day on levels of ozone and nitrogen dioxide, pollutants known to attack and weaken lung tissue.

Read the whole story by Scott Dance on the Baltimore Sun. Photo credit to the Baltimore Sun.