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EPA Highlights Air Pollution Monitoring Project in Buffalo, New York

April 16, 2024

NEW YORK (April 16, 2024) – Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia and Dr. Eun-Hye Enki Yoo, Associate Professor, University at Buffalo and Senior Pastor George F. Nicholas, Lincoln Memorial United Methodist Church as well as other dignitaries gathered in Buffalo, NY to highlight a new collaborative project led by the University at Buffalo, SUNY. The university received almost $500,000 to deploy low-cost air pollution sensors at sampling sites in the residences of the underserved African American community in Buffalo. They will use this data to develop a community-specific air quality prediction model by integrating the new measurements with existing data. EPA specifically awarded funding, partly under Inflation Reduction Act, to increase monitoring in areas that are underserved to help them better understand what they are exposed to and to help them work with local and other officials to help address the sources of pollution.   

“Knowledge is power and when people know more about what they are breathing, they can better participate in decisions that can address that pollution. This investment will provide the people of Buffalo with access to local air monitoring networks, which will raise community knowledge of air quality ," said Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia . "The Biden-Harris Administration has prioritized direct community participation in information gathering to help reduce harmful air pollution."  

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Interim Commissioner Sean Mahar said, “DEC applauds the Biden-Harris Administration, EPA Administrator Regan, and Regional Administrator Garcia for investing in Buffalo and the health of its residents through this grant and partnership with University at Buffalo experts. Governor Kathy Hochul and DEC recognize the value of research and innovation in addressing our most pressing pollution challenges, as demonstrated by the statewide Community Air Monitoring Initiative, and we look forward to continue to work with our partners at EPA to continue prioritizing New York communities, particularly those most vulnerable to air pollution and the impacts of climate change.”  

Thanks to the American Rescue Plan and Inflation Reduction Act, the University at Buffalo is getting a gust of $500,000 in federal funding to install air monitoring equipment in underserved communities, paving the way for cleaner and safer air for Western New York’s families and children,” said Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer . “I am proud to deliver this environmental justice funding to support the East Side of Buffalo, from Delevan-Grider to the Broadway Market and beyond, in the fight for clean air and will always advocate to deliver the federal support to build a cleaner, more equitable future for Western NY.” 

“ Conducting air quality monitoring in historically marginalized communities is an impactful way to improve health outcomes in areas that have been disproportionately impacted by pollution for decades," said New York State Senator Sean Ryan . "I am thankful to the Biden-Harris administration for prioritizing this important work, and I applaud the decision to leverage the University at Buffalo’s expertise and resources to bring this program to Buffalo’s most vulnerable neighborhoods.”  

“As one of nation’s premier public universities, and a flagship of New York, the University at Buffalo is committed to research, education and service. I am proud to say that this EPA-funded project meets those goals and will help reduce health disparities on Buffalo’s East Side,” said Sean Bennett, PhD, professor of geography and associate dean for social sciences in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences.”  

"Today in America, people of color are three and half times more likely to live in a neighborhood with poor air quality. This combined with poor academic achievement, substandard housing, persistent under employment and lack of access to healthy food and medical care, creates a toxic environment that produces unacceptable health race-based health disparities” said Senior Pastor and CEO of the Buffalo Center for Health Equity George F. Nichola s.  “I am encouraged that the EPA is investing valuable resources for research and programming to improve air quality for all."  

The grant is one of 132 air monitoring projects in 37 states that will receive $53.4 million from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and American Rescue Plan to enhance air quality monitoring in communities across the United States. The projects are focused on communities that are underserved, historically marginalized, and overburdened by pollution, supporting President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative.  

The University at Buffalo will deploy low-cost air pollution (fine particles and nitrogen dioxide) sensors at sampling sites in the residences of the underserved African American community in Buffalo and develop a community-specific air quality prediction model by integrating the collected sensor measurements with existing data. The data will be further supplemented via a targeted mobile-monitoring campaign in which the research team will collect high-resolution monitoring data by driving a vehicle outfitted with an array of real-time commercial air monitors. This data will be helpful for vulnerable populations in the community.  

The air pollution monitoring project is one of several are made possible by more than $30 million in Inflation Reduction Act funds, which supplemented $20 million from the American Rescue Plan and enabled EPA to support 77 additional projects, more than twice the number of projects initially proposed by community-based nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, and Tribal governments.  

These grant selections further the goals of President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative and Executive Order,  Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad , which directed that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments flow to overburdened communities that face disproportionately high and adverse health and environmental impacts. By enhancing air monitoring and encouraging partnerships with communities, EPA is investing in efforts to better protect people’s health, particularly those in underserved communities.  

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 provides funding to EPA to deploy, integrate, support, and maintain fenceline air monitoring, screening air monitoring, national air toxics trend stations, and other air toxics and community monitoring. Specifically, the Inflation Reduction Act provides funding for grants and other activities under section 103 and section 105 of the Clean Air Act. EPA is using approximately $32.3 million of this funding to select 77 high-scoring community monitoring applications. See the full list of applications selected for award .  

Follow EPA Region 2 on X and visit our Facebook page. For more information about EPA Region 2, visit our website .   

• Latest News >
• Air pollution harms mental health worse in New York’s historically redlined neighborhoods

Air pollution harms mental health more in New York’s historically redlined neighborhoods

Photo illustration: University at Buffalo researchers found that, in New York State, the link between air pollutant exposure and ER visits for mental disorders was most pronounced in historically redlined communities.  

Statewide study finds the link between pollutants and ER visits is more pronounced in communities that were once denied mortgages due to race

By Tom Dinki

Release Date: August 22, 2024

Eun-Hye Enki Yoo

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Air pollution is bad for mental health. That much is clear. Now, new research shows the impact may be even worse in neighborhoods that were historically redlined. 

University at Buffalo researchers looked at 17 cities across New York State where longstanding federal housing policies once denied neighborhoods with people of color from receiving mortgages. Although this practice was outlawed in 1968, the researchers found that elevated levels of air pollutants in these neighborhoods of the state are disproportionately linked to increased emergency room (ER) visits for mental disorders.

“There was a significant association between air pollutant exposure and ER visits throughout these cities’ various neighborhoods, but it was most pronounced in their redlined communities, negatively impacting the vulnerable population that still lives there,” says Eun-Hye Enki Yoo, PhD, associate professor of geography in the UB College of Arts and Sciences. 

Yoo is the lead author of the study , which will be featured in the Oct. 20 issue of Science of the Total Environment.

Linking pollution to mental disorder ER visits

Redlining came about from New Deal-era government-insured mortgages. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) rated communities’ lending risk from “A” to “D,” with D being considered the most risky and colored red on color-coded maps. These D-rated — or redlined — neighborhoods, not coincidentally, had higher populations of non-white residents, as the FHA concluded that homes near Black residents might lose property value. 

Research has found that D-rated neighborhoods to this day have worse air quality, caused by proximity to industry and highways, and worse mental health, among other poor health outcomes. 

“So the next logical question was whether these mental health outcomes are due, at least in part, to harmful environmental exposures,” says the study’s co-author, John Roberts, PhD, associate professor of psychology and associate director of clinical training in the UB Department of Psychology. 

Elevated levels of pollutants are considered risk factors for anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, substance abuse disorders and dementia, but to substantiate a direct link, Yoo and Roberts collected deidentified New York State Department of Health patient records from 2005-16 and compared the data to daily air quality predictions by machine learning models. They focused on 17 cities where the federal government drew redlining maps, including Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Rochester, Albany and the boroughs of New York City.

They found that when levels of two pollutants, fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide, were elevated in D-rated neighborhoods, mental disorder-related ER visits there increased 1.04% and 0.44%, respectively, two days later. 

Meanwhile, in A-rated neighborhoods, those the FHA once considered least risky, there was no association between elevated pollutants and subsequent increased ER visits. 

However, the researchers note that the sample size for the A-rated neighborhoods was low, so they also compared the combined data of A- and B-rated neighborhoods with the combined data of C- and D-rated neighborhoods. While particulate matter had a significant effect on ER visits in both neighborhood groups, nitrogen dioxide, a gas associated with the burning of fossil fuels, did not have such an effect on the A and B group.

“Of course, there are many reasons, including social determinants of health, why there are more ER visits in one particular area than another, but we have methods, such as case-crossover design, that allows us to control for preexisting conditions and socioeconomic status,” Yoo says. “So the data showed rather conclusively that redlined neighborhoods bear the brunt of air pollution-induced mental health problems.”

The study also found that the association between elevated pollutants and increased ER visits only occurred during medium temperatures, 40 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and that children under 18 and adults aged 35–64 were more susceptible to having air pollutants impact their mental health. 

“Both these findings suggest being outdoors is a major factor in pollutant exposure, as people tend to be outside most during mild-weather days and younger people tend to be outside more than older people,” Yoo says.

Studies of Buffalo and beyond up next

Yoo has a $499,963 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to install 30 air monitors across Buffalo’s East Side, a predominantly Black community with disproportionately negative health outcomes. It aims to provide even more accurate and localized air quality data than those provided by the predictive models in the current study. 

Yoo is also collaborating with Oregon Health and Science University to analyze air pollution and mental health in historically redlined neighborhoods across the country. 

“New York is not necessarily representative of the entire United States, so we’re excited to extend the framework of this study to a national analysis,” Yoo says. “We hope that more direct evidence may lead to policy change to do something about this problem.”

Media Contact Information

Tom Dinki News Content Manager Physical sciences, economic development Tel: 716-645-4584 [email protected]

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Improvements in Urban Air Quality: Case Studies from New York State, USA

• Published: 16 April 2010
• Volume 214 , pages 93–106, ( 2011 )

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• Shannon M. Buckley 1 &
• Myron J. Mitchell 1  

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Air quality levels vary over regions due to meteorological factors, proximity to sources, and local conditions (i.e., topography). The Northeast USA is subjected to pollution inputs from both local sources and those from the upwind Midwest USA that are transported by prevailing meteorological patterns. With the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970 and the establishment of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), national levels of air pollutants have declined significantly. Our study compared air quality time trends between five of the largest cities within New York State (Albany, Buffalo, New York City, Rochester, and Syracuse) and statewide means to national trends. Data were obtained from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Bureau of Air Quality Surveillance for six criteria pollutants: carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), ozone (O 3 ), particulate matter (PM 2.5 ), and lead (Pb). Regional Kendall tests found significant downward trends for each pollutant statewide from 1980 to 2007, while trends by city varied by decade and pollutant. The evaluation of historical trends of pollution in industrialized nations is useful in showing recent air quality improvements and also in the understanding what can be the result in air pollutant controls in those developing nations currently experiencing high levels of pollution.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support for this work by Syracuse Center of Excellence CARTI project award, which is supported by a grant from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [Award No: X-83232501-0]. This work has not been subjected to the Agency’s required peer and policy review and therefore does not necessarily reflect the views of the agency and no official endorsement shall be inferred. We would also like to thank the Russ Twaddle at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Bureau of Air Quality Surveillance for providing the data and assistance. We also want to thank Phil Hopke at Clarkson University for his helpful comments on these analyses and interpretations. And a final thanks to the two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments, questions and suggestions.

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Buckley, S.M., Mitchell, M.J. Improvements in Urban Air Quality: Case Studies from New York State, USA. Water Air Soil Pollut 214 , 93–106 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-010-0407-z

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-010-0407-z

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Study: Air pollution can accelerate lung disease as much as a pack of cigarettes a day

By david j. hill.

Release Date: August 13, 2019 This content is archived.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Air pollution, especially ozone air pollution that’s increasing with climate change, accelerates the progression of emphysema of the lung, according to a new study led by the University of Washington, Columbia University and the University at Buffalo.

While previous studies have shown a clear connection of air pollutants with some heart and lung diseases, the new research, published today (Aug. 13) in JAMA , demonstrates an association between long-term exposure to all major air pollutants — especially ozone — with an increase in emphysema seen on lung scans.

Emphysema is a condition in which destruction of lung tissue leads to wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath, and increases the risk of death.

The results are based on an extensive, 18-year study involving more than 7,000 people and a detailed examination of the air pollution they encountered between 2000 and 2018 in six metropolitan regions across the U.S.: Chicago; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Baltimore; Los Angeles; St. Paul, Minnesota; and New York City. The participants were drawn from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) Air and Lung studies.

“To our knowledge, this is the first longitudinal study to assess the association between long-term exposure to air pollutants and progression of percent emphysema in a large, community-based, multi-ethnic cohort,” said study first author Meng Wang , an assistant professor of epidemiology and environmental health in UB’s School of Public Health and Health Professions.

Wang is also a faculty member in the UB RENEW (Research and Education in eNergy, Environment and Water) Institute.

Wang conducted the research as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington.

“We were surprised to see how strong air pollution’s impact was on the progression of emphysema on lung scans, in the same league as the effects of cigarette smoking, which is by far the best-known cause of emphysema,” said the study’s senior co-author, Joel Kaufman, professor of environmental and occupational health sciences in the University of Washington’s School of Public Health.

Ambient ozone levels that were 3 parts per billion higher where study participants lived compared to another location over a period of 10 years were associated with an increase in emphysema roughly the equivalent of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day for 29 years.

And the study determined that ozone levels in some major U.S. cities are increasing by that amount, due in part to climate change. The annual averages of ozone levels in study areas were between about 10 and 25 ppb.

“Rates of chronic lung disease in this country are going up and increasingly it is recognized that this disease occurs in nonsmokers,” said Kaufman. “We really need to understand what’s causing chronic lung disease, and it appears that air pollution exposures that are common and hard to avoid might be a major contributor.”

Researchers developed novel and accurate exposure assessment methods for air pollution levels at the homes of study participants, collecting detailed measurement of exposures over years in these metropolitan regions, and measurements at the homes of many of the participants.

While most of the airborne pollutants are in decline because of successful efforts to reduce them, ozone has been increasing, the study found. Ground-level ozone is mostly produced when ultraviolet light reacts with pollutants from fossil fuels.

“This is a big study with state-of-the-art analysis of more than 15,000 CT scans repeated on thousands of people over as long as 18 years. These findings matter since ground-level ozone levels are rising, and the amount of emphysema on CT scans predicts hospitalization from and deaths due to chronic lung disease,” said R. Graham Barr, professor of medicine and epidemiology at Columbia University and the paper’s senior author.

“As temperatures rise with climate change, ground-level ozone will continue to increase unless steps are taken to reduce this pollutant. But it’s not clear what level of the air pollutants, if any, is safe for human health,” Barr said.

Emphysema was measured from CT scans that identify holes in the small air sacs of the participants' lungs, and lung function tests, which measure the speed and amount of air breathed in and out.

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UB receives EPA grant to monitor air pollution on Buffalo’s East Side

The EPA-funded initiative to monitor air quality on the East Side of Buffalo aims to improve health outcomes in neighborhoods whose residents are more likely to suffer chronic, serious diseases.

By BARBARA BRANNING

Published November 23, 2022

UB has been selected to receive federal funding to conduct air quality monitoring in the city of Buffalo.

The project is one of seven initiatives in New York State to receive funding from the Environmental Protection Agency. Nationally, 132 air quality projects in 37 states will receive a total of $53.4 million from the Inflation Reduction Act and American Rescue Plan.

The EPA grants are aimed at improving air monitoring in underserved communities across the country. The projects focus on communities that have been historically marginalized and overburdened by pollution.

The UB project will receive $499,963 to gather air quality data at sampling sites on Buffalo’s East Side using low-cost, portable, environmental sensors. By integrating the collected measurements with existing data, such as satellite-derived aerosol optical depths and data from ground-monitoring networks, the project’s researchers will develop an air quality prediction model specific to the communities they are serving.

“With this funding from the EPA, we will use low-cost, ambient air pollution sensors to collect more detailed and community-specific air quality data from Buffalo’s East Side, a predominately African American neighborhood whose residents are more likely to suffer from serious, chronic and often preventable diseases,” says the grant’s principal investigator, Eun-Hye Enki Yoo, associate professor in the Department of Geography, College of Arts and Sciences. 

“We will convert this data into useful information that will help policymakers and community organizers reduce these adverse health outcomes, especially for disproportionately affected individuals,” she says.

“Air pollution has a significant impact on health outcomes, especially in marginalized communities,” says Rep. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y. “This is particularly evident in Western New York, given our community’s industrial past.”

Higgins says the UB program will help community leaders develop ways to improve the health and wellness of the most vulnerable members of the Buffalo community.

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Estimating ground-level no 2 concentrations using machine learning exclusively with remote sensing and era5 data: the mexico city case study.

1. Introduction

Study area: the metropolitan area of mexico city, 2. materials and methods, 2.1. ground-based no 2 measurements.

• Regular maintenance and calibration: Ground stations undergo routine maintenance and calibration to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the instruments.
• Data validation: Raw analyser data are subjected to validation processes to detect and correct anomalies or errors.
• Intercomparison studies: In some cases, data from ground stations have been compared and used following data from other monitoring networks and satellite observations to ensure consistency and accuracy [ 18 ].

2.2. Satellite Data: Sentinel-5P

• Copernicus Data Space: Provides free access to Sentinel-5P data and other Copernicus data products https://dataspace.copernicus.eu (accessed on 9 July 2024).
• ESA Earth Observation Data Services: Data and Information Access Services (DIAS) provide a wide range of Earth observation data, as well as processing and analysis services https://www.copernicus.eu/en/access-data/dias (accessed on 9 July 2024).

2.3. Meteorological Data: ERA5

2.4. data processing, 2.4.1. satellite data processing, 2.4.2. meteorological data aggregation, 2.4.3. ground-based data synchronisation, 2.5. feature engineering.

• Ground NO 2
• Satellite NO 2
• Current Temp Celsius
• Current Surface Net Solar Radiation
• Current Surface Pressure
• Previous Temp Celsius
• Previous Surface Net Solar Radiation

2.6. Model Training and Validation

3. results and discussion.

• Open Space: Includes public open areas, vacant land, and water bodies. These areas are designated for recreation or conservation or remain undeveloped, offering ecological benefits and leisure opportunities.
• Non-residential Areas: Encompasses commercial, office, industrial, civic, and transportation hubs and networks other than roads. These zones are utilised for business activities, industrial operations, public services, and transport infrastructure.
• Atomistic Settlements: Areas developed without formal planning, featuring irregular layouts and non-uniform parcel sizes and road widths. These areas evolved organically over time.
• Informal Land Subdivision: Areas with informally planned layouts marked by visible but inconsistent infrastructure, variable parcel sizes, and road widths. These areas often lack formal approval and standardised infrastructure.
• Formal Land Subdivisions: Areas planned with municipal approval, showcasing consistent infrastructure quality, standardised parcel sizes, and road widths. These zones adhere to municipal regulations and include paved roads, streetlights, and sidewalks.
• Housing Projects: Developments where land subdivision and home construction follow a unified plan, resulting in similar structures and layouts. These projects range from large apartment complexes to uniform suburban housing, typically developed by a single entity.

4. Conclusions

Author contributions, informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest, abbreviations.

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Share and Cite

Cedeno Jimenez, J.R.; Brovelli, M.A. Estimating Ground-Level NO 2 Concentrations Using Machine Learning Exclusively with Remote Sensing and ERA5 Data: The Mexico City Case Study. Remote Sens. 2024 , 16 , 3320. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16173320

Cedeno Jimenez JR, Brovelli MA. Estimating Ground-Level NO 2 Concentrations Using Machine Learning Exclusively with Remote Sensing and ERA5 Data: The Mexico City Case Study. Remote Sensing . 2024; 16(17):3320. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16173320

Cedeno Jimenez, Jesus Rodrigo, and Maria Antonia Brovelli. 2024. "Estimating Ground-Level NO 2 Concentrations Using Machine Learning Exclusively with Remote Sensing and ERA5 Data: The Mexico City Case Study" Remote Sensing 16, no. 17: 3320. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16173320

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