TagUW(9)

The University of Washington's Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences is developing two mobile air quality monitoring platforms to identify pollutant mixtures in Washington communities affected by sources such as non-roadway transportation, industrial emissions, and burn events. The $925,000 project will equip hybrid SUV vehicles with instruments measuring ultrafine particles, black carbon, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and other pollutants, enabling flexible and simultaneous monitoring at multiple locations. The project will also produce standardized sampling protocols and community engagement strategies to support long-term air quality trend analysis.

In summer 2018, Beacon Hill residents partnered with University of Washington researchers to measure noise levels at 52 locations across Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood over several months, collecting 136 separate 24-hour measurement periods. The study found that the neighborhood is heavily affected by aircraft noise from three nearby airports — Seattle-Tacoma International, King County International, and Renton Municipal — with Sea-Tac arrival flight paths directly overlying the area and King County International Airport runways located as close as a quarter mile away. The project represents the first quality-assured, community-led noise dataset of its kind for Beacon Hill, and was designed to inform future research into the health impacts of airport noise on residents.