City, Mayo Clinic are working to get a clear picture of air pollution
Apr. 8—ROCHESTER — We're not all breathing the same air.
That's what nearly three years of air quality data collected in Rochester shows public health officials and health care researchers.
In 2020, volunteers and city staff installed 13 air sensors at various spots in Rochester. The project was the first phase of an ongoing air quality assessment project that's a collaboration between the City of Rochester; Destination Medical Center; Zumbro Valley Health Center; Olmsted County Public Health; the North Star Chapter of the Sierra Club and Mayo Clinic's Precision Population Science Lab.
"One thing we want to explore, especially people with chronic respiratory illness, is what kind of air are they breathing," said Matt Spiten, a researcher at Mayo Clinic's Precision Population Science Lab.
Before the project, Rochester had a single air quality sensor that sat atop Ben Franklin Elementary School. The Mayo Precision Population Science Lab collected about an hour of data from the sensors twice a day.
"The first phase explores whether the one sensor at Ben Franklin really represents air quality in Rochester," Spiten said. "We can see now that air quality varies throughout the city."
The sensors and air quality samples taken by volunteers from We Bike Rochester show fine particulate matter called PM2.5 varies by time of day and location in the city, Spiten. PM2.5 is produced by the combustion of fuel, oil and wood.
Spiten said the data collected so far indicates traffic is a major source of air pollution.
"It seems pretty clear that traffic volume is a pretty good surrogate marker for air pollution," he said.
Phase two of the project will begin later this month. The sensors will be calibrated to ensure they're collecting accurate data. That will be done by putting them in one place so that they're measuring the same air and adjusting the data they collect. Yale University is assisting with that project. After that, the measurements of PM2.5 in the air will be more thoroughly tracked.
That data will help researchers and health care providers track health outcomes and eventually protect vulnerable people from the effects of air pollution.
Although air pollution across Minnesota has decreased in recent decades, people with health conditions or sensitivity to pollutants still experience serious health complications when pollution is high.
A report released in 2022 estimated pollution was a contributing cause of death for up to 74 people in Rochester in 2015. Statewide, air pollution was estimated to contribute to up to 500 deaths per year.
The figures were based on air quality and health data released in a statewide Life and Breath report prepared by the Minnesota Department of Health and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
The goal of the collaboration is to understand the dynamics of air pollution in the city and develop ways to help prevent health complications due to air pollution, Spiten said.
"With data, you have a stronger case to make recommendations or changes at a policy level," he said.
Developing a central website and public access to air quality data is also part of the second phase of the project, Spiten added.
"We want the people to have access to it and to feel confident that it's accurate," he said.
Some of the air quality monitors are part of a network that can be viewed live online at
. However, that data might be unavailable for part of April and May while researchers calibrate the monitors. After that, another platform that will include data from the Purple Air monitors and other monitors being developed. That's when the team can begin to more thoroughly document what they've so far only glimpsed.
"That's one thing we're trying to do, show how dynamic air pollution can actually be," Spiten said.
