My family moves.
A lot.
Moving with two children is not the easiest thing I’ve ever done, and my older daughter’s asthma complicates the process. To protect her health, I have to take air quality into account when we move to a new city in addition to all the usual requirements like a strong job market and economy and good schools. Her asthma, though, has increased my efforts to minimize the effects of pollution and both my daughters’ health. While I’m not happy my third grader has weak lungs, I am happy her health issues led me to do the research about the quality of the air, soil, and land in the places we live.
The Internet is full of good tools that help the search for a clean place to live and tell you more about your community’s pollution. Here are three of my favorites.
Scorecard
Scorecard tracks toxic chemical releases, air and water quality, and Superfund sites in communities by zip code. Not only can you learn which toxic chemicals are most prevalent in your community but you can also find out which businesses are the worst offenders and see how where you live rates against other U.S. areas. This is probably the most comprehensive pollution tracker for communities out there and the one I go to first.
American Lung Association’s State of the Air
The American Lung Association releases this report every year. It tracks ozone and particle pollution by county and assigns grades separately for each kind of pollution. Another good tool on the State of the Air site is the Best and Worst Cities link, which lets you find area with the best and worst air qualilty by county, city, or metro area or by type of air pollution.
EPA: Where You Live
An enormous resource, Where You Live has several excellent tools. One is a pollution locater by zip code similar to Scorecard’s, but the site also features the popular Window to My Environment database that will give you an interactive map with pollution sources, statistics about local population and geographic features, and specific environmental concerns in your area. The site also contains the AIRNow air quality index, toxic releases inventory, and Superfund site locater.
