In January of 2015, Shaw TV in Nanaimo produced the following show about wood smoke pollution on Gabriola Island. It features two of Gabriola Island Clean Air Society founders: David Boehm and Michael Mehta.
Here's an interview with Dr. Michael Mehta on local radio in Nelson, B.C., on woodsmoke from an environmental and human health perspective. His part starts at approximately 30 minutes in.
In August of 2016, the Gabriola Island Clear Air Society brought online the first PurpleAir sensor network in Canada. Our sensor network has documented extensively the staggering amount of air pollution coming from wood stoves and fireplaces on our tiny island. As the number of PurpleAir sensors expanded across the province and elsewhere in Canada, many began to raise questions about the accuracy of these low-cost devices. There have been several studies to-date that all show the same thing: these devices work, are accurate, reliable, and fill in gaps in air quality monitoring. The newest study from Australia by Dr. Dorothy Robinson provides definitive evidence that should quash any concerns about using PurpleAir sensors. See the study here . Gabriola Island Clean Air Society director Dr. Michael Mehta has the following to say about this study. This paper provides empirical evidence to show that the use of low-cost PM2.5 monitors for measuring air quality on a distributed basis has me
Over the past two years the Gabriola Island Clean Air Society has worked with community groups and individuals to setup more than 50 low-cost, realtime air quality monitors in BC. These devices m ade by PurpleAir have created a more nuanced and detailed picture of our air sheds, and also have provided much needed empirical evidence to support the claim that wood burning from a variety of sources creates local pollution hot spots that are not being detected by provincial air quality monitoring. The accuracy of these instruments has been questioned by some, in part, because people are often uncomfortable with the results. Residential wood burning including the use of fireplaces, wood stoves, bon fires, and yard clearing exposes people who live nearby to air pollution risks that are hyper local, and as high (but on an ongoing albeit episodic basis) as forest fire smoke. The forest fires unfolding in the interior of British Columbia this past week provide some important glimpses in
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