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The community of West Oakland is surrounded by several major air polluters. Several freeways run through the neighborhood, and ships and trucks going in and out of the Port of Oakland put exhaust into the local air several times every day. Local residents report higher rates of cancer and respiratory problems as a result. Since the early 2000's, the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project has been advocating for cleaner air in the West Oakland community through community-based citizen science.
WOEIP has many years worth of block-by-block air quality data collected by their many dedicated volunteers using low cost shoulder-mounted air quality sensors. Volunteers receive extensive training on accurate equipment calibration and reporting process, and donate a day to walking around the neighborhood, gathering readings on particulate matter in the air. This form of citizen science educates and engages the local community in air quality activism, and provides a needed check on City and Port air quality reports.
This project is a joint effort of Open Oakland (a Code For America brigade) and WOEIP to make this important data, as well as related partner data, available and comprehensible to environmental justice advocates and members of the community. Check back for updates as this site is under development.