Lehigh Student, Professors Partner with PurpleAir to Monitor Local Air Quality

Lehigh environmental sciences major Madison Hernandez ’23 is working with two of her professors on finding sustainable solutions to combat the issues of air pollutants in the Lehigh Valley.

With the help of Benjamin Felzer, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences, and Joan Ramage Macdonald, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences, Hernandez has partnered with PurpleAir, a company that provides indoor and outdoor air pollutant monitors.

PurpleAir sensors allow local residents and scientists to collect hyper-local air quality data and inform the public of their exposure to poor air quality.

Air pollution is a perpetual issue in the Lehigh Valley and needs severe environmental action, experts say. The Valley ranked seventh worst out of 28 urban areas and rural counties in Pennsylvania in 2020, according to the “Trouble in the Air” report released by the PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center and Frontier Group in 2021.

Emissions from diesel engines with four-stroke cycles resulting from truck traffic to warehouses are a major source of air pollution in the Lehigh Valley, Felzer said.

“The particulate matter known as PM2.5 is one of the most dangerous air pollutants because it can penetrate into deeper parts of our lungs and impair our lung function,” he said.

Hernandez said there are currently five PurpleAir monitors in north Bethlehem, with plans to set up more in south Bethlehem. In her research with PurpleAir, Hernandez looks at seasonal and daily trends of when there were spikes of PM2.5 and other harmful particulate matter.

“The first monitor the environmental science department put up was at Professor Felzer’s house,” Hernandez said. “He lives in a wooded area that was not densely populated. We wanted to use this as a control for what we thought would be the least populated area.”

At a neighborhood in north Bethlehem, air quality has shown to be satisfactory with little to no risk with 24-hour exposure, Hernandez said.

Hernandez said they plan to put additional monitors in local areas with high population density and low-income communities that are predominantly populated by racial minorities and those with preexisting health conditions.

“Particularly where there are fancier houses, [people] tend to be less impacted by air pollution,” Macdonald said. “Right around Lehigh, there is more traffic, smaller houses, dense populations and poverty, which are interconnected with poor air quality and longer health effects.”

Individuals who are predisposed to polluted environments are more susceptible to having weakened immune systems over time, Macdonald added.

Pollutants such as PM2.5 have caused people to be hospitalized for asthma, have strokes, lung cancer and obstructive pulmonary disease, Hernandez said.

Macdonald said it's important to look at topography and local weather systems when understanding the causes of air pollution. Bethlehem is also known to have a history of industrial activity and pollution.

With her growing understanding of these issues, Hernandez recommends ways to reduce the quantity of pollutants accumulating and getting stuck in the Lehigh Valley.

“Ordering stuff online, ordering things on Amazon, bringing these trucks through the neighborhoods, causes more harm to the community,” Hernandez said. “Students can even take the LANTA (Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority) buses for free at Lehigh.”

Students, staff and faculty can contribute to preventing the increase of air pollution by helping with data analysis and suggesting new places to put monitors, Hernandez said.

In order to create environmental change for the Lehigh Valley, there must be more collaborative action taken in the community, added Hernandez, who urged students who are interested in participating in the project to contact her or Felzer.

Story by Caleigh Avramis ’22, spring media relations intern