THE AIR WE BREATHE - March 2025
By Vivian LaMoore, Inaajimowin Editor
Air is all around us. We usually cannot see or touch it, but with out it, humans would not survive. Air contains oxygen, which is essential for our bodies to function. Without access to breath able air, humans would quickly lose consciousness and perish due to lack of oxygen.
Knowing how clean or polluted the air is helps to under stand how it may affect your health. That is why the Mille Lacs Band Department of Natural Resources applied for and received a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency IRA Section 60105(c) Air Sensors Grant, a 5-year $20,000 grant.
The Band’s grant provides for 35 sensors and common repair parts, to be distributed mainly within the Mille Lacs Band service districts, but also in other areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin, to enable the Band to be wildfire smoke prepared, and allow the data to be used by federal and state air quality regulators, and by academic and commercial entities, to produce air quality information products, including localized air quality forecasts and alerts, which the Band would be a beneficiary, said Charlie Lippert, Mille Lacs Band DNR Air Quality Specialist.
Clean air is made up of about 78 percent nitrogen, 21 per cent oxygen, and about one percent hydrogen, carbon dioxide, argon, neon, and other gases. Air also holds a lot of tiny particles such as dust and pollen that are naturally carried around when the wind blows. But air, both indoor and outdoor, can also hold and carry other particles that can make the air unhealthy, such as wildfire smoke, smog, and emissions from power plants and vehicles and other sources. The monitors installed by the Band will monitor a very important component of air pollution from these sources: small particles referred to as PM2.5. These particles are very small, just 2.5 micrometers (µm) in diameter, invisible to the human eye.
Quality Index (AQI) forecasts enhance human health by helping residents avoid risks from air pollution. AQI helps individuals understand how air pollution might impact their health. The American Lung Association states anyone can be affect ed by air pollution, but it can especially dangerous for many people, including children, teens, and Elders. It also can adversely affect people with asthma and other lung diseases, diabetes or cardiovascular disease, or who are pregnant. Even healthy adults who exercise or work outdoors can be harmed. Being aware of when the air quality is bad gives you the chance to take steps to protect your health.
But how is information collected to produce an AQI? Air quality databases process readings from government sources, crowd-sourced in puts, and satellite-derived monitors to generate an aggregated AQI reading. The Band monitors are now included in that network.
Fine-particle pollution is monitored throughout the year in all reporting areas. The American Lung Association states that air pollution levels are recorded daily and ranked on a scale from 0, indicating perfect air, to 500, representing air pollution levels that pose an immediate risk to public health. The AQI categorizes air pollution levels into six groups, each with a name, an associated color, and corresponding advice. AQI values at or below 100 are deemed satisfactory for nearly everyone. When AQI values exceed 100, the air quality becomes unhealthy. The higher the number, the greater the risk to health for the population.
The Band selected the air sensor product PA-II Particulate Matter Sensor by PurpleAir. “We wanted our data to be useful to tribal, federal, state, academic, and commercial entities for air quality information products the Band receives, Lippert said. “Because of large number of PurpleAir sensors deployed across the United States, Canada, and the rest of the world, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency together with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service have developed data correction factor for the PurpleAir sensors such that the sensor data would be more relatable to regulatory air monitors, which in our area are located in Twin Cities, St. Cloud, Brainerd, Fond du Lac, Duluth, and Perkinsville and Eau Claire, in Wisconsin. Thus, these low-cost air sensors fill in the spatial gaps left by the air monitors.”
The PurpleAir air quality monitors use laser counters to measure the number and size of particles in the air between 0.3 and 10 micrometers in diameter. Readings are transmitted to the cloud, refreshing the data approximately every two minutes, to be displayed on an interactive PurpleAir map. This map is accessible on any internet browser to look at real-time PM readings to help individuals make informed decisions about their health and safety.
This grant adds 19 sensors to the Mille Lacs Reservation area and 14 in other areas of Western Minnesota, including the Leech Lake Band, Red Lake Nation, and the White Earth Band, as sentinel sites for the Mille Lacs Band, and two sites with the Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota to fill in a sensor coverage gap in the southwestern Twin Cities. The 19 sensor sites in the Band’s Service Districts are scatted across all three Band districts to provide coverage in the 1837 Treaty Ceded Territory, filling in the sensor gap located between the Twin Cities and the Mille Lacs Reservation.
Visit https://tinyurl.com/PurpleAirMLBO to find real-time data for the Mille Lacs Band PurpleAir monitors and all others across the country.
The next time you see an Air Quality Alert message come across your social media feed, see it on the news, or hear about it on the radio, you will know that the Mille Lacs Band DNR along with volunteers from the Band and other tribes, all played an integral part in obtaining the information that goes into the alert.
