Guadalupe Community Air Project

What is the Guadalupe Community Air Project?

The air we breathe directly affects our health. When dust, smoke, harmful gasses, or other sources of pollution are in the air, they can get into our lungs and make us sick. Many of these pollutants are invisible, so it can be hard to know if our air is healthy or not. The Guadalupe Air Monitoring Project aims to make the “invisible” particles in our air visible.

Members of the Guadalupe community understand that poor air quality can lead to poor health.This project was created to give community members opportunities to share their experiences, concerns, and needs related to air quality. A team of local community members, scientists, engineers, and educators are measuring outdoor air quality within Guadalupe to bring data to the community. The information we are collecting is shared in many ways, including on a bilingual website, at community meetings, and through school programs.

WHAT CEC IS DOING

In partnership with the team at Blue Tomorrow, we are using air quality sensors placed in five parks and/or schools in Guadalupe to measure air temperature, wind, and pollution from sources including fossil fuels, wildfire smoke, and pesticides. The monitors collect on-going information on air quality, which is shared on a website in both English and Spanish.You can visit guadalupeair.com to see how clean or polluted the air is, and find information about how you can protect your health.

We believe that everyone deserves to know what is in their air, so we can protect ourselves. Air pollution can lead to an increased risk of health issues ranging from asthma and bronchitis to cancer. By providing daily updates on local air quality, we hope to make it easier for people living and working in Guadalupe to know if it's safe to be active outside. The project includes a strong focus on health and climate science education to help students and their families confidently engage with and participate in decisions that affect the Guadalupe community.

“The Air We Breathe” by CEC Climate Justice Fellow, Gabriela Morales. This short documentary uplifts community voices on pesticide use in Guadalupe.