Gone are the days of Pittsburgh being called “hell with the lid taken off,” when the air was so polluted that street lights would turn on in the daytime, people’s clothes would have soot stains, and you had to go into the basement to clean up before you could walk inside your home.
Above: Triboro Ecodistrict youth building home air purifiers at Millvale Library
By Zaheen Hussain
Gone are the days of Pittsburgh being called “hell with the lid taken off,” when the air was so polluted that street lights would turn on in the daytime, people’s clothes would have soot stains, and you had to go into the basement to clean up before you could walk inside your home.
Never-the-less, due to our car-dependent transportation system, weather, and the presence of heavy industry, the Pittsburgh region still gets an F from the American Lung Association’s State of the Air Report for Ozone and 24hr Particle Pollution. With recent mass-pollution events from industrial installations in the Pittsburgh region, it’s easy to see why we would get an F.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, ozone and particle pollution can cause coughing, damage airways, make lungs susceptible to infection, and trigger and worsen asthma attacks, emphysema and bronchitis. Moreover, research indicates that air pollution is linked to developmental disorders, negative impacts on pregnancies, low birthweight, and cancers of the lung, bladder, and leukemia.
What’s concerning in all this is that oftentimes in the Pittsburgh region, opening our windows can actually make air quality in our homes worse, not better. This is particularly troubling for folks who do not have air conditioning in the summer or don’t want to use air conditioning to reduce their carbon footprint. People are left with the unfair choice of either baking in oppressive heat or exposing themselves to highly polluted air.
Worry not, however, as there is a third choice! A home air purifier.
No no – not the expensive purifiers you see online, running for $250-$1000. A build-it-yourself, DIY home air purifier made with a box fan and a furnace filter. For the price of $51.93, you can buy a box fan, a furnace filter and box fan filter. Stick it all together with either some tape, or a couple of bungee cords, and voila.
Sounds too good to be true? Nope! Citizen science driven indoor air quality testing in the Triboro Ecodistrict led by the group, Reducing Outdoor Contaminants in Indoor Spaces (ROCIS) has already shown that air quality improves significantly with these at-home filters. Still don’t believe it? Get this – if you search “box fan” on Home Depot’s website, it will list the three items as “frequently bought together.”
Residents of the Triboro Ecodistrict have already been putting these in their homes to improve air quality, and you can too! Sign up for our newsletter to learn about any future air quality improvement programs.
Residents of Triboro Ecodistrict participate in home Air Quality monitoring initiative with ROCIS