“Those discrepancies are quite stark,” said Michael Flagg, principal air quality specialist at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The relatively “low-cost” sensors, which cost about $200 per device, appear to be concentrated in the more affluent areas of the region, according to a Chronicle analysis of the PurpleAir sensor network. ![]() ![]() Such occurrences aren't limited to Dinan’s small part of the Bay Area. “It was like somebody redlined East Palo Alto.” “It was like, what’s going on here?” he said. He posted a screenshot showing the discrepancy in the PurpleAir Users Facebook group. These sensors, which users can install in their homes to collect and access real-time data, offer a hyperlocal perspective compared to government-run air monitoring stations, which tend to show data for the broader region.īut Dinan, who works as a tech recruiter, noticed something strange last August: East Palo Alto had no sensors - a stark contrast from across the freeway, where the traditionally wealthier Palo Alto had dozens. The numbers came from a network of low-cost sensors sold by the company that people install at their homes.Īs the region’s air quality and the effects of wildfire smoke continued to rise as a pressing issue in the Bay Area, the number of private, low-cost air quality sensors have skyrocketed in the past year- PurpleAir sensors are among the most popular brands of monitors. ![]() Last summer, as wildfires raged across the state and smoke cloaked the Bay Area, East Palo Alto resident Mark Dinan did what many Bay Area residents were doing - he pulled up a map made by the company PurpleAir showing real-time air quality measurements.
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