Despite lockdowns during the pandemic, air pollution is not improving as experts initially hoped and climate change is the primary culprit. 

As climate change worsens natural catastrophes like wildfires and droughts, air quality declines. Even for healthy adults, this does not bode well for respiratory health. 

In answer, innovators are looking to help people stay informed via digital tools like air quality trackers.

Among the government agencies, health agencies and NGOs studying air quality are companies like Plume Labs and IQAir which offer everything from air quality tracking apps to air sensors and purifiers.

Plume Labs, IQAir and Airly are behind popular air quality tracking apps that can relay air quality in users’ areas, provide air quality notifications and forecast air quality much like apps predicting the weather. In addition to tracking air quality, the apps can alert users when air quality becomes harmful for vulnerable populations, such as those with asthma. 

The companies use data from multiple sources including government regulatory monitors, beta attenuation monitoring (BAM) often used by NGOs and community groups, large-scale atmospheric models and information like land use, traffic and population density.

According to the American Lung Association’s National Senior Vice President for Public Policy Paul Billings, pollutants like ozone and particulate matter can cause healthy adults to experience symptoms such as wheezing and shortness of breath. For children and seniors, the effects can be far more severe resulting in asthma attacks, a need for more medication, emergency room visits and hospitalization.

“Sadly we know that tens of thousands of people die each year due to pollutants,” Billings told MobiHealthNews. 

Between climate change and COVID-19 - an illness that attacks the respiratory system - attention to air quality is growing. 

“We know that people get interested in air quality when pollution starts to affect them on a personal level. With the increase of pollution events around the world—longer more intense wildfire seasons, extended more deadly pollution peaks in cities—awareness is growing and people want help,” Plume Labs Director of Communications Tyler Knowlton told MobiHealthNews.

While the Clean Air Act of 1970 resulted in 50 years of steadily improving air quality, data from 2017, 2018 and 2019 shows a decline in U.S. air quality, Billings said, referring to the American Lung Association’s “State of the Air” 2021 report

According to the report, over 40% of Americans are living in areas with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution. 

For people of color, the burden is significant. The report found that people of color are over three times more likely than white people to breathe the most polluted air. 

To help, companies are also reaching beyond apps and maps.

IQAIR recently launched AirVisual Outdoor, low-cost outdoor air quality monitors that can be used by individuals outside their homes or outside commercial buildings. Connected to IQAir’s sensor network, the sensors help collect data for real-time air quality monitoring even in remote locations.

Also with data collection in mind, Plume Labs recently launched a series of tools to help researchers, governments, NGOs, enterprises and activists with air quality monitoring. The products include portable personal sensors and access to live data and data mapping. 

“We say in the management world, what gets measured gets done. If we are not measuring and monitoring then we are not able to have goals or reach them,” IQAir North America CEO Glory Dolphin Hammes told MobiHealthNews. 

When the pandemic forced the first round of lockdowns in 2020, the drastic change in people’s daily behavior sparked hope that air quality could improve. 

According to Knowlton, improving air quality is not as simple as reducing behaviors like driving. 

“Pollution can still be high even when everyone is staying home because there are lots of different pollutants in the air that come from many different sources. Some types of pollution also travel long distances (ex: particulate matter) while others stay in the atmosphere for long periods of time (ex: ground-level ozone),” Knowlton said. 

Data from 2020 during the pandemic is still being gathered, but experts like Billings say the pollution does not appear to have decreased as much as initially thought. 

“There was lots of optimism and hope last Spring we were going to see lower levels,” Billings said. “But also California saw as bad or worse pollution as you'd expect in a non-covid year.”

According to Hammes, the year’s fourth quarter erased any clean air gains made in the first three quarters.

“We were on track to improve the air quality just because of lockdowns and behavior as a result of the pandemic, however towards the end of the year with the wildfires taking place, all of that, the actual reduction in air pollution went away and that’s just because of the PM2.5 particulate pollution as a result of the wildfire,” Hammes told MobiHealthNews. 

The western United States has been hit particularly hard.

In the “State of Air” 2021 report Fairbanks, Alaska had the worst short-term particle pollution. Other cities across California, Oregon and Utah top the most polluted list. Bakersfield, California was the most polluted for year-round particle pollution. 

“The real trend is that climate change is worsening air quality and impacting health right now,” Billings said.