Cold winter nights trap air pollution near the ground in Fairbanks and North Pole, causing fine particulate concentrations to exceed health-based standards. This problem is so severe that on the stillest and coldest winter days, fine particulate concentrations exceed double the US air quality standard. To study the sources of unhealthy air, scientists have measured the composition of these particles. This talk will present the scientific understanding of this problem and answer the following questions: How do we know wood smoke is a major source? What about powerplant emissions? Do burn bans work? The answers to these questions can help our community make evidence-based decisions to improve air quality.

LINKS:

• YouTube video referenced at 3:39 - "What you breathe matters, here's why"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX8KL...

• PM 2.5 values referenced at 11:11 - https://dec.alaska.gov/air/air-monito...

• Fairbanks heat source survey, referenced at 23:50 - http://dec.alaska.gov/media/7554/fbks...

• Emissions of PM 2.5 per unit of heat, referenced at 24:39 - Sources: 1- Oil and Gas emissions from: McDonald, R., Evaluation of Gas, Oil and Wood Pellet Fueled Residential Heating System Emissions Characteristics, BNL report BNL-91286-2009-IR, https://www.bnl.gov/isd/documents/713...

2- Ranges for Pellet and woodstoves from: Nussbaumer, T., Overview on Technologies for Biomass Combustion and Emission Levels of Particulate Matter (2010) ISBN 3-908705-21-5, http://tftei.citepa.org/images/files/...

• Reducing sulfer reduces PM 2.5 emissions, referenced at 35:00 - McDonald, R., Evaluation of Gas, Oil and Wood Pellet Fueled Residential Heating System Emissions Characteristics, BNL report BNL-91286-2009-IR, https://www.bnl.gov/isd/documents/713...

MORE RESOURCES: Citizen Sensor Network: http://purpleair.com

Alaska DEC alerts: http://dec.alaska.gov/Applications/Ai...

Sign up for text messages (there is a link on the page below): http://dec.alaska.gov/Applications/Ai...

Many phone apps can get the local data. I use “AirVisual”: https://www.airvisual.com/air-quality...