Air quality monitors installed around Dearborn
DEARBORN, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - On Tuesday, the city of Dearborn announced the installation of 10 air quality monitors throughout the city.
"Dearborn is an industrial and car-oriented city, so we typically have air pollution concerns that other cities may not have," says Ali Abazeed, the chief public health officer and director of Public Health for the city of Dearborn.
He says he's aware of the residents' concerns regarding air pollution. Abazeed adds that with these monitors, accessibility is available to the public in both English and Arabic through a website called JustAir.com.
"I hope that if you drop by any neighborhood in Dearborn and ask someone if they're familiar with what AQI is, that you would probably find a few folks that say yes because of this program," Abazeed said.
AQI is the Air Quality Index. Abazeed says with monitors placed strategically throughout the city in places like industrial areas, trucking routes, heavily used highways, and Ford Woods Park (as seen in the video above) will help inform residents when those levels may get too high and could have a real impact on people.
"What we want to accomplish six months from now, 12 months from now is our residents understand that if there's an AQI number that they know they are suffering from asthma or COPD or heart disease, they understand what that information means for them and how they can go about making more health informed decisions about their day," Abazeed says.