Air Quality Awareness Week
Be Air Aware & Prepared
Air Quality Awareness Week is May 2 to 6 this year, and NYCHA’s Environmental Health and Safety Department is celebrating the national “Be Air Aware & Prepared” campaign by providing the following information on how you can check the air quality in your community and look out for triggers that can cause health problems such as asthma.
The AirNow website provides helpful resources, including the official U.S. Air Quality Index (AQI), a color-coded index that lets you know whether air quality is currently healthy or unhealthy for you.
Daily Air Quality Index Chart
The AQI measures five major pollutants:
- Ground-level ozone (smoke, particle pollution)
- Particle pollution/particle matter (dust, dirt, soot, drops of liquids)
- Carbon monoxide (an odorless and colorless gas)
- Sulfur dioxide (a colorless gas with an irritating, pungent odor)
- Nitrogen dioxide (gets in the air mainly from the burning of fuel)
Asthma Triggers
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an asthma attack can happen when you are exposed to “asthma triggers.” Know your triggers and learn how to avoid them. Some of the most common triggers are mold, pests, tobacco smoke, dust mites, outdoor air pollution, pets, smoke from burning wood or grass, and infections like the flu.
NYCHA’s Environmental Health and Safety Department’s Indoor Air Quality and Integrated Pest Management oversight teams are experts on identifying and eliminating any hazards that might be harmful to a person’s health. If you have an air quality issue that hasn’t been resolved, please submit your concern here so the EHS teams can investigate.
For more information on air quality, please visit the websites of the NYC Health Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
