By Karina Alvarado and Martha Ortega
Experts are investigating the air quality in San Mateo due to the forest fires and high temperatures that have been recorded in recent months.
The San Mateo County Council, in conjunction with Climate Resilient Communities (CRC) and the Stanford Future Bay Initiative, through the “Our Communities, Our Bay” project, has placed air sensors in homes in East Palo Alto, Redwood City, North Fair Oaks, and Belle Haven.
"Our Communities, Our Bay" is an academic research project with two objectives: to understand how communities are affected by climate risks and to find technologies and practices that best protect the health of families," says its website.
And it is that, the air sensors, through a mobile application - which is based on the application Smoke Sense from the Environmental Protection Agency – allow users to learn about air quality, forest fires and health risks, as well as offering the opportunity to share their experiences.
These sensors indicate air quality through a color code, with green being the best case scenario, meaning the air quality is excellent, yellow meaning it is somewhat poor, red meaning it is bad, and purple meaning the quality is very poor, allowing families to make decisions about their activities while protecting themselves.
“Air sensor data can help you make decisions to protect your health if air quality worsens,” the website notes.
The data collected by the sensors is sent to Sonoma Technology, the company that developed the application, and then shared with researchers.
"It's not a video camera, it's not a camera that's going to record you, it's something safe," said Martha Ortega, who stressed that the data collected does not endanger the safety of the participants, as it contains codes that do not reveal their names or addresses.
Ortega also said that sleep sensors are also being installed to determine how users are sleeping.
However, the benefits of having an air sensor from this project at home not only contribute to the health, but also to the economy of those who join this research, since "Our Project, Our Bay" offers compensation of up to $290 and the opportunity to enter a raffle for an iPad Pro or a thousand dollars.
For more information, interested parties can access the website https://www.ourcommunitiesourbay.org/nuestro-proyecto.
You can find out the air quality in your area at https://www.airnow.gov.
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