community air proposal:

What we are proposing for community air monitoring is simple: We want Intel, the polluting party, to place air monitoring equipment in the communities most at risk of breathing the chemical compounds that they are releasing.

Current methods of monitoring focus on measuring what is coming out of the smokestacks. After the pollutants leave the stacks, however, there is no tracking to see where they are going. Current protocol uses statistical models to predict where the pollution is traveling. But these are only predictions. The only way to know for sure what people are breathing is to put monitors on the ground, where the residents live, where children play. We don't want statistical predictions--we want concrete information that is based on direct measurement.

We feel that multinational corporations posting healthy profits and who benefit from public subsidies should make sure that they are not hurting those who live in their shadow. That's it. If you emit carcinogens and other toxicants, then you should place monitors in the adjacent neighborhoods to ensure that residents are not breathing poisons that may show up twenty years later as cancer clusters, reproductive problems, or have developmental effects on children.

What we are proposing here is not rocket science. Intel, with all of its engineers, scientists and profits has the resources to place air monitors in the community. Some of Intel's neighbors have agreed to allow monitoring equipment on their properties. All because they want to know...Intel, What are We Breathing??

The proposal for air monitoring in the communities surrounding an Industrial facility that has direct emissions into the atmosphere can best be understood in three basic steps: Collection, Analysis and Reporting.

1. Collection: The air must be collected for analysis. The type of analysis, however, determines how the air sample must be collected. For some chemical compunds, the air sample is drawn directly into the analysis equipment. For other chemical compounds, a sample must be taken, stored and transported to a laboratory for analysis.
2. Analysis: This proposal is limited to two types of analyses: On-site Infrared Gas Spectrometer Analysis (Figure A below) and a Laboratory Analysis (Figure B)
3. Reporting: Once the analyses are complete, the results should be made available on a website and e-mailed to interested parties (Figure C)

Our friends at Stone Lions Environmental Corporation have provided the following basic monitoring plan.

 

In the schematic above, there are two types of collection and analysis protocols. The Infrared Gas Spectrometer System (A) can sample ambient air and analyze it on the spot. It is possible to link a computer to the testing equipment that can almost instantaneously publish results on the web and send e-mails to intersted parties.

The Air Toxic Collection System (B) uses a more traditional method of collection and analysis. In this case, an automatic air sampler injects ambient air into a tube or canister (usually under vacuum) that stores the sample until a technician can collect the canisters for delivery to a laboratory for analysis. In this case the laboratory would enter the test results into a program that would automatically load them onto a webpage and send e-mails to the interested parties.

Any facility that releases poisons into the atmosphere should be responsible to ensure that anyone who may be exposed to these toxics, know what and how much of a particular chemical constituent they are breathing. In our community monitoring program, we emphasize complete transparency of the chemical analyses. The results of the chemical analyses should be published on the web and also e-mailed out to interested parties that include residents, local, state and federal environmental agencies, schools, churches, and anyone else who may have an interest in knowing what they are breathing.

In essence: we don't want statistical projections of chemical behavior in the atmosphere, we want to know what we are breathing. The only way to do this is by placing air monitoring equipment in the neighborhoods that surround Intel's facilities.

1. Intel's Pollution levels vs. other New Mexico Industry (www.scorecard.org)
2. Intel: What are we breathing??? (chemical list)
3. Volatile Organic Chemical Concentrations Near Intel Plant
4. Air Dispersion of Emissions from an Industrial Facility--Animation
5. How to model air pollution-a primer
6. A Primer Proposal for Community Air Monitoring