Description
- Abstract:
- In Providence, RI, environmental justice and community health advocates have called for a better understanding of the city’s air quality and its impacts on vulnerable populations. Inspired by these calls, Breathe Providence launched in 2022 as a community-scale network of low-cost air pollution sensors. However, there persists a disconnect between traditional methods of evaluating air pollution and Providence residents’ experiences of air quality, which may not always align with how regulations are structured and what can be measured with available technology. Consequently, there is a need to bring academic and community expertise together to investigate these issues using non-traditional methods. In the fall of 2023, Breathe Providence, the Racial and Environmental Justice Committee, and a community research consultant convened the Resident Task Force, a cohort of 11 community members concerned about environmental justice and health. Via six monthly sessions, the group identified and researched questions rooted in Task Force members’ first-hand experiences of air pollution. Members’ perceptions and priorities were driven by health and quality-of-life impacts—what they felt, saw, and smelled. One primary issue raised by the group was noxious odors surrounding the Port of Providence and other industrial areas. In an effort to collect data that reflected this experience, Task Force members adopted the CREATE Lab’s Smell My City app as a tool to track odors by their intensity, type, impact, and location. Members also practiced documenting their pollution observations through journaling and artistic exercises. Outcomes of this work include 1) Task Force members’ increased understanding of themselves as data sources, 2) the identification of tools for documenting lived experiences of pollution, and 3) the collection of a crowdsourced dataset via the Smell My City app, which captures pollution impacts beyond what can be represented by criteria pollutant measurements. These results offer concrete insight into the extent and impact of the noxious odor issue as well as demonstrate the value of this model of community engagement and knowledge production. Findings from the Task Force and Smell My City are now playing a key role in Providence’s and Rhode Island’s plans to reform systems for odor reporting and control.
- Notes:
- Funding provided by Clean Air Fund
Access Conditions
- Use and Reproduction
- All rights reserved
- Rights
- In Copyright
- Restrictions on Use
- All Rights Reserved
Citation
Berrg, Grace, Holguin, Jesus, Cameron, Kai, et al.,
"If you smell something, say something: Findings from the Breathe Providence Resident Task Force"
(2024).
Breathe Providence Digital Collection.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.26300/edvz-ec48
Relations
Collection:
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Breathe Providence Digital Collection
This collection holds research and engagement materials for Breathe Providence, a community-focused air monitoring network in Providence, Rhode Island based at Brown University. The monitors continuously measure concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrogen oxides (NOₓ), ozone (O₃), …...