The Houston region is the location of some of the most extensive ambient air monitoring anywhere in the world. Only the Los Angeles region even comes close. Nevertheless, many of us believe that the air monitoring done here is insufficient to protect the health of our region’s citizens.
Starting in the spring of 2005, the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention (GHASP) began evaluating monitoring technologies that could be deployed by citizens. This effort was financially sponsored by a private donor to GHASP. The executive director at that time decided to focus on ozone at unmonitored locations. Some locations stood out not merely because they were unmonitored, but because models suggested they might have elevated levels of ozone.
After discussing monitoring with local experts who described newer, less-expensive and less-complicated methods, the executive director decided to expand GHASP’s monitoring evaluation to include other forms of air pollution, especially air toxics and particulate matter. While the Houston region is in compliance for particulate matter, levels at some monitoring sites have long hovered near non-compliance. Air toxics have no federally enforced levels, so non-compliance is not the issue. Houston has a reputation for having some of the highest levels of some air toxics anywhere. Health effects attributed to some of this category of pollutants are known to occur in the Houston region in numbers larger than most other parts of the U.S.
Read the full report below.
