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How the Ohio EPA monitors the air quality in Youngstown

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The Ohio EPA monitors the air quality all over the state and one building in downtown Youngstown is key to collecting that data.

The EPA built the air monitoring center in the city in 2021. They used to have several centers across Youngstown that were overseen by the Mahoning Trumbull Air Pollution Control Agency, but decided to condense them all into one.

Inside the center, machines track three specific air pollutants: ozone, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter.

“The little funnels that you saw up on the roof pulls a sample in through the sample tubing and then goes directly to the back of these monitors,” Darren Machuga, an Ohio EPA Environmental Specialist said about how they get the data in the center.

If the levels for any of the pollutants gets too high, it can cause sensitive people to have breathing problems. 

“Elderly people, young people, (people with) asthma … If the levels are elevated you may want to stay inside,” Machuga said.

When the smoke from the Canadian wildfires filled the city, the center tracked crucial data for the Ohio EPA to send alerts for sensitive people to not go outside. 

“We were seeing numbers we’ve never seen before,” Machuga said. “It was pretty amazing.”

There are over 100 monitoring centers throughout Ohio that track different air pollutants. All of the data is updated on AirNow.gov every hour for people to track the air quality all over the state.


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