If you’re worried about your city’s air quality, unfortunately checking the stats on local air reports won’t do you much good. The air pollution data collected by the government is by and large taken from remote areas and applied at a regional level — so for those concerned about pollution and mitigating its health risks, there’s not much to be done with the faulty information. To help empower citizens when it comes to improving the air in their cities, a team of innovators have created the Air Quality Egg system, a sensor system that allows individuals to collect very high resolution readings of NO2 and CO concentrations outside of their home, and share it with other inhabitants via the web.

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Post tags: air monitor, air monitoring devices, air pollution, air pollution monitor, Air quality, air quality devices, air quality egg, air safety, consumer air pollution monitor, how to monitor air quality, in home air monitor

Read the rest of REC Architects Build a Grass & Glass Modern Building in Mexico

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Post tags: Air quality, Architecture, biodegradable materials, cool building, cuernavaca, glass, local materials, mexico, minimalist architecture, Petate, Rec Arquitectos, round windows, steel, Sustainable Materials

Read the rest of Spain’s First Certified Passive House Cuts Energy Use by 90%

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Post tags: "energy efficiency", Air quality, Daylighting, energy saving, Josep Bunyesc, llerida, OSB boards, passive house, Prefab Housing, quickly built, renewable energy, Spain First Passive House, wool insulation

Last week, the federal government took a big step towards cleaning up the air in our national parks when a U.S. District Court in Washington, DC approved an agreement between the EPA and conservation groups to establish new air pollution cleanup plans. Currently, air pollution caused by fires, the power industry and other man-made causes is a big problem for our treasured parks as it produces haze that affects visibility and air quality. If you’ve ever been to one of our national parks and were disappointed that you weren’t able to see some of the natural wonders because of air pollution, the EPA’s new course of action could change all of that.

Read the rest of EPA Aims To Improve Air Quality in National Parks

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Post tags: air pollution, Air quality, Big Bend National Park, environmental protection agency, epa, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, haze, national parks, power plants, texas

Mayor Boris Johnson has come under fire for his office’s recommendation that municipal trucks spray saline solution along busy streets to reduce air pollution levels before the upcoming London Olympics. The “dust suppressants” behave like a glue, attracting dust particles to the ground so that they stick to roads instead of floating in the air. The process is used in 15 different sites across London, all of which, the director of a local non-profit points out, are close to government air quality monitoring stations. Simon Birkett, Director of Clean Air London, accused the Mayor’s office of spraying the suppressants before air readings are taken to monitor pollution levels.

Read the rest of London Mayor Accused of Using Dust Suppressants to Lower Pollution Levels Before Olympics

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Post tags: 2012 summer olympics, air pollution, Air quality, Boris Johnson, Clean Air London, dust suppressants, London, olympics, pm10, pm10 particles, Pollution, united kingdom

When hydraulic fracturing (or fracking – the technique of extracting natural gas from rocks) was thrust into the public consciousness with the release of the 2010 film Gasland, most of the conversation centered around water contamination. Since then, questions have been raised about some of the other byproducts of fracking, including earthquakes, waste disposal, and now, air emissions. A new study from the Colorado School of Public Health reveals that emissions from fracking sites contain known carcinogens and other harmful chemicals.

Read the rest of Study Shows Air Emissions from Fracking Sites Contain Carcinogens and Other Harmful Chemicals

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Post tags: air pollution, Air quality, benzene, carcinogens, emissions, environmental protection agency, epa, fracking, gas drilling, hydraulic fracturing, hydrocarbons, hydrofracking, natural gas

As part of his “Toxic America” series, CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been investigating schools, and his findings are not good. Research suggests that at least one-third of U.S. schools have mold, dust and other indoor air quality issues that can cause asthma in students and staff. It gets worse: According to Healthy Schools Network, as many as 5 million U.S. children may be attending K-12 schools where poor air quality, hazardous chemicals and other unhealthy conditions can make everyone sick. And it isn’t just indoor air quality that’s the problem — the outdoor air at many schools is toxic enough to cause asthma and cancer.

READ MORE >

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Post tags: Air quality, asthma, cancer, chemicals, dust, green kids, Inhabitots, kids, mold, parenting, school, toxins

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Post tags: Air quality, birch, Danish design, Denmark, Denmark Prefab, flexible interiors, green materials, local materials, natural light, Prefab Housing, skylight, small house, sustainable wood

The Obama Administration is continuing its maddeningly anti-environmental course by blocking the EPA from enforcing stricter rules for air quality. Just last week, the administration approved the plan for the Keystone XL pipeline, and now Obama himself has stepped in to thwart the EPA’s plan to strengthen ground-level ozone (smog) standards, which could have protected us against health-threatening pollution. The President cited the recovering economy as his main reason for abandoning the regulations, saying that it would impose to heavy a burden on the industry — a fact that many environmentalists have been quick to point out is not entirely true.

Read the rest of Obama Abandons EPA’s Stricter Smog Regulations

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Post tags: Air quality, air quality rules, air quality usa, environmental protection agency, epa, ground level ozone, obama administration, obama smog, obama smog regulations, obama smog rules, smog, smog regulations, smog rules

Air Products, one of the leaders in hydrogen fueling technology, have just announced the official opening of the world’s first fuel cell and hydrogen energy station in Orange County, California. Inaugurated today, the station is unlike any other built before, in that it draws from a nearby wastewater plant to not only sustain itself, but to also power hydrogen vehicles.

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Post tags: air products, Air quality, alternative fuels, hydrogen fuel cells, hydrogen power, orange county, wastewater, wastewater recycling

Ozone is a ground-level air pollutant that plagues cities, especially those overrun by cars. But now Toyota’s Central Research and Development labs have announced the development of a material that removes 95% of unreacted ozone from the air when used in an ozone filter. The material is called mesoporous two-line ferrihydrite or M2LFh (say that ten times fast) and is porous, which gives it a large inner surface area with numerous iron sites near the surface for absorbing ozone. What does all this mean? The car you drive around could actually clean the air instead of adding to air pollution.

Read the rest of Toyota’s Breakthrough M2LFh Technology Will Remove 95% of Ozone from the Air

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Post tags: air pollution, Air quality, alternative transportation, green automotive design, green transportation, ozone filter, ozone removal, Toyota mesoporous two-line ferrihydrite, Toyota ozone

Read the rest of Edinburgh’s Gorgeous John Hope Garden Gateway Wins 2011 Sustainability Award

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Post tags: "wind power", Air quality, Architecture, biomass power, biomimicry, Botanical, Daylighting, Edward Cullinan Architects, fresh air, green interiors, green materials, green resources, green technology, local materials, photovoltaic panels, rainwater collection system, renewable energy, scotland botanic gardens, scottish timber, social design, Solar Power, solar thermal, Sustainable Building, water issues

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Post tags: Air quality, Apartment-Factory, Architecture, great wall of china, green roof apartments, green roof designs, hakka houses, korean architecture, seoul architecture, Urban design

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Post tags: Air quality, Architecture, double glazing, dutch design, flax insulation, green interiors, green materials, Green Real Estate, green renovation, green technology, heat pump, One Planet Architecture Institute, Recycled Materials, renewable energy, solar panels, Solar Power, stucco, Sustainable Building, zecc architects, Zero energy

Read the rest of Britomart’s Leafy Three Storey Green Wall is New Zealand’s Largest

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Post tags: Air quality, Britomart, eco design, Green Building, green design, Green Walls, Landscape Architecture, Living Walls, maori patterns, Natural Habitats, New Zealand, Sustainable Building, voc

Despite its strict tailpipe emission standards, California is still the state with the dirtiest air due to its geography that traps pollution and the fact that it is the state with the largest number of cars on the road. A new report by the American Lung Association states that if three-quarters of California’s cars were electric by 2025, it would potentially reduce the incidence of asthma attacks and pollution-linked chronic lung illnesses by up to 70 percent.

Read the rest of Electric Vehicles Could Account for 70% Reduction in Lung Illnesses

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Post tags: Air quality, alternative transportation, American Lung Association, california air pollution, electric car, ev, green transportation, lung illness

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Post tags: "energy efficiency", "sustainable development", Air quality, Coral House, eco building, geneva, geothermal heating and cooling, Group 8 architects, Minergie, shades, solar gain, Sustainable Building, Switzerland

Read the rest of Inhabitat Tours the Incredible Healthy Home 2010!

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Post tags: 2010, Air quality, Architecture, chicago, Eco, green, healthyhome, home, house designer, illinois, interior design, low VOC, natural, Organic, Palatine Village, ShowHouse, Sustainable, tour

We’ve seen wallpaper that monitors your environment and wallpaper that tells a scientific story, but now there’s even wallpaper that cleans the air! That’s right, Blücher Technologies has come up with a “breathable, glass fiber/polyester nonwoven paper-like covering” with absorbents that capture icky toxins like PCB, PCP, pesticides, and radon. The air purifying wallpaper is a smart way to get around “sick building syndrome” if you’re doing a retrofit of a space that was built in an era where “no-VOC” didn’t mean diddly to anyone.

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Post tags: air, air cleaning wallpaper, Air quality, green design, green products, green wallpaper, Saratech Permasorb, toxins

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Post tags: Air quality, floating gardens, green architecture, migrating floating gardens, migrating gardens, oxygen, Pollution, rael san fratello architects, Solar Power, urban development