Brylee Lutman

Air Quality Index Lab

For the lab, information of air quality was taken from the cities St. Louis and
Los Angeles. The pollutants of the air were measured throughout the year, and put
on a scale of good, moderate, unhealthy/sensitive, unhealthy, and very unhealthy.
The pollutants measure were CO and NO2. CO is formed through burning fossil
fuels, solid waste, trees, and wood products, and certain chemical reactions. These
human activities have contributed substantially to climate change. Excess CO
causes the environment to heat up unnaturally, causing things like global warming.
NO2 is a highly reactive gas, produced from car, buses, power plants, and off road
equipment emissions. High amounts of NO2 in the environment can cause acid rain
and aggravate respiratory diseases. St. Louis is a city with a population of 318,416
thousand people. It is known for its sever smog episode in 1939. Since then, the
pollution has gotten increasingly better. Los Angeles, comparatively, also had
terrible smog problems. Because of the 3.9 million people living there, the pollution
has been a major issue. Even though the air quality has improved, Los Angeles is
still at the top of the list for worst air condition in the nation.

Using the EPA website, the AQI of NO2 and CO was measured.

From the listed data, quantitative observations were able to be detected. For example, St.
Louis in 1980 had many more COs in the good (217) category than Los Angeles in 1980
(59). This is a 158 number difference. Also, in 2015, both Los Angeles and St. Louis had the
same number of COs in the good category (365). Both places made a major improvement.
Overall, the NO2 was much higher in Los Angeles 1980 in the unhealthy/sensitive category
(216) than in St. Louis (120). Both numbers are still very high, though.

The following statements refer to the pictures of the daily CO and NO2 AQI values below. It is
evident that, in 1980, both Los Angeles and St. Louis had the worst AQI levels. Also, in 1980
in Los Angeles, when the weather is colder, the pollution seems to get worse (November
through February). There seems to be no pattern in the pollution in 1980 for St. Louis. There
is also no patterns involving weather in either cities for 2015.
Brylee Lutman
Brylee Lutman

The data mainly shows how significant the change in AQI has been from 1980
to 2015. Both cities showed drastic improvements in the pollution of both CO and
NO2. In 1980, the pollution scattered throughout all of the levels. Moderate, along
with unhealthy/sensitive groups were the highest categories, while good is now
the highest concentrated level. In the 1980s, there were also unhealthy and very
unhealthy days, while now, there are none.
Brylee Lutman

St. Louis had better air quality. In 1980, there were no days in which St. Louis
was very unhealthy, whereas in Los Angeles there were many instances. There
were also higher concentrations of good levels in St. Louis than in Los Angeles.

One reason there could be a difference in the two cities is because of how
many more people live in Los Angeles. More people means more vehicles and more
power needed/more coal used and needed. This then increases the pollution.
Another reason could be that Los Angeles is much hotter than St. Louis, so more air
conditioners in cars and homes would be bought. This also increased the want for
cars, because no one would want to walk in the burning heat. Lastly, more people
travel to Los Angeles than to St. Louis because of attractions such as beaches,
Hollywood, Disneyland, etc. More tourists mean more buses, rental cars, and
airplanes.
Brylee Lutman

Works Cited
https://www.epa.gov/no2-pollution/basic-information-about-no2

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-air-pollution-report-20160420-story.html