Air Quality Awareness Week

This week, May 2-6, is Air Quality Awareness Week 2022 ! The week is recognized, promoted, and celebrated by: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and U.S. Department of State – EPA . This year’s theme is Be Air Aware & Prepared and each day this week will focus on the following areas:

• Monday 5/2: Wildfires & Smoke
• Tuesday 5/3 – Asthma & Your Health
• Wednesday 5/4 – Participatory Science & Sensors
• Thursday 5/6 – Environmental Justice & Air Quality
• Friday 5/7 – Air Quality around the World

 Retriever Ambient Air Quality (RAAQ)

To recognize Air Quality Awareness UMBC is proud to announce its newest initiative – Retriever Ambient Air Quality or RAAQ for short. The RAAQ initiative is designed to help YOU understand Baltimore’s local air quality and its impacts to YOUR activities.

The RAAQ initiative provides you with easy access to:

• UMBC’s Offical Air Quality Index
• The current air quality index
• The official daily air quality index forecast
• Tomorrow’s air quality forecast
• Live Feed for Baltimore’s Air Quality Action Notification
• UMBC’s real time air quality sensor on campus
• UMBC’s Air Quality Index Activity Guide

 What is the Air Quality Index?

Think of the Air Quality Index (AQI) as a yardstick that runs from 0 to 500. The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of air pollution and the greater the health concern. For example, an AQI value of 50 or below represents good air quality, while an AQI value over 300 represents hazardous air quality.

For each pollutant, an AQI value of 100 generally corresponds to an ambient air concentration that equals the level of the short-term national ambient air quality standard for the protection of public health. AQI values at or below 100 are generally thought of as satisfactory. When AQI values are above 100, air quality is unhealthy: at first for certain sensitive groups of people, then for everyone as AQI values get higher.

The AQI is divided into six categories. Each category corresponds to a different level of health concern. Each category also has a specific color. The color makes it easy for people to quickly determine whether air quality is reaching unhealthy levels in their communities.

What kind of Air Quality Does Baltimore Have?

People across America regularly breathe unhealthy air that increases their risk of premature death, asthma attacks, and other adverse health impacts. The 2018 Environment Maryland Research & Policy Center and Maryland PIRG Foundation’s report, Trouble in the Air Millions of Americans Breathe Polluted Air, identified Baltimore as one of the ten most populated metro areas in the US with more than 100 days of elevated air pollution in 2016.

In 2016, 73 million Americans experienced more than 100 days of degraded air quality with the potential to harm human health. That is equal to more than three months of the year in which smog and/or particulate pollution was above the level that the EPA has determined presents “little to no risk.” Millions of more people in urban and rural areas experienced less frequent but still damaging levels of air pollution.