News

Inexpensive Air Quality Sensors here for our Climate Catastrophe

As our atmosphere rapidly accepts pollutants and the planet rises in temperature, small air quality sensors are becoming more affordable and widely used.

Low-cost air quality sensors are becoming more accurate and affordable to the general public month by month. There is a grand amount of research occurring in the field so air quality sensors. Government, private industry, non-profits and community scientists are all concerned about the air pollution around the world.

Job Opening: Postdoctoral Research Associate

One postdoctoral research position is open in the Air Quality Research Center (AQRC) at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis). This Postdoctoral scholar will be working primarily in a project aiming at determination of the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) and other priority pollutant gases on pre and post-installation of anaerobic digester for the following types of waste treatments: green waste/food waste mixture; wastewater sludge, and dairy waste. The competent candidate will work with a research team led by Prof. Frank Mitloehner and Dr.

Climate Change Guarantees Brutal Fire Seasons

It's only August and the 2020 wildfire season has already burned more acres than the worst season on record (2017 with a whopping 1.2 million acres burned). As discussed in an article by Mic, climate change has exacerbated the regular wildfire "season" and the Coronavirus is making it exceptionally hard for firefighters to tend to the blaze. While the smoke will not carry COVID-19, the respiratory problems caused by the black carbon particles within smoke, PM 2.5, will make people more susceptible to respiratory illness like COVID-19. 

Premature death from cross-state air pollution decreases from 53% to 41%

It’s widely known through the Air Quality Research Center that outdoor air pollution leads to untimely deaths throughout the world, however, a recent publication by Dr. Erwan Monier, Associate Professor of Climate Change Impacts in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, and associates demonstrated that many of these deaths are a result of cross-state air pollution. 

My Lungs Are Closing Up

California's wildfire season is becoming longer with more extreme fires due to climate change. This means more smoke being launched into the air causing detrimental effects to people's health, most notably, those who live in unhealthy, high-poverty neighborhoods. In a recent KALW broadcast, reporter Lee Romney spoke with an intelligent and impassioned mother-daughter pair about their experiences. 

You have permission to be a couch potato

 “You have permission to be a couch potato," says AQRC Director Tony Wexler. Recent wildfires across the state of California have caused ash to rain down on cities miles away from evacuation zones. The haze from these fires is a result of tiny particles in the air clouding our views. Director Wexler along with Dr. Mary Prunicki, director of air pollution and health research at Stanford University’s Sean N. Parker Center for Asthma and Allergy Research, advises everyone to stay indoors as much as possible while the fires rage across the state. 

Smoke does not carry COVID-19 from person to person

While the wildfires roaring throughout the state of California are producing smoke which affects people for miles on end, the good news is COVID-19 is not carried within that smoke. Listen to Johnny D'Agostini of iHeart Radio SF discuss with  Director Wexler the connecting effects of COVID-19 and wildfire smoke. 

COVID-19 and Wildfire Smoke - iHeart Radio

 

Frontiers in Atmospheric Chemistry Seminar Series

UC Davis professor Dr. Christopher Cappa with several inter-campus colleagues has developed a new virtual series on the Frontiers in Atmospheric Chemistry. They have recruited a mix of junior and senior faculty members from across North America to  present on research results pertaining to atmospheric chemistry. The sessions will take place every Friday through the Fall semester over Zoom at 10am PT starting on September 11th.

Do immature lungs have air–blood barriers that are more permeable to inhaled nanoparticles than those of fully developed mature lungs?

A recent collaborative study between Harvard and UC Davis produced data backing the notion that nanoparticles (NP) more frequently crossed the air-blood lung barrier to the rest of the body in infant rats than adults. Fascinatingly, this higher permeability demonstrates immature lungs do not follow the same directives as mature lungs.