The Foreign Service Journal, October 2016

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2016 21 members at polluted posts, as this growing public health con- cern raises important questions. Defining and Measuring Air Pollution Broadly speaking, air is polluted when it contains unhealthy elements, commonly referred to as “particulate matter” (PM). According to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Preventio n, PM is made up of various combinations of organic chemicals, acids, metals, soils, dirt, soot, smoke and dust. The smaller these particles are, the more harmful they become. Those smaller than 10 micrometers in diameter (PM10) can make their way past our throats and noses and enter our lungs. From there, they can make their way to our hearts. Bigger “inhalable coarse particles” are mostly found close to road traffic and industry, but “fine” PM (smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter, PM2.5) comes from smoke and haze. Fine PM is especially harmful because it can penetrate even further into our lungs. Polluted air can be visible (e.g., smoke, haze, exhaust fumes) and may have a distinct smell (e.g., from coal or wood burning). However, judging the air’s quality by these assess- ments can be misleading. In the United States, the Air Quality Index monitors both PM10 and PM2.5 levels and assesses air cleanliness for a particular location using a number. While that calculation is more of an approximation, the AQI (as well as equivalent, country-specific air measures) remains our best tool for understanding how polluted ambient air is. In addition, the AQI offers information on health implica- tions (see the chart on p. 23). In the United States, EPA’s AirNow website (www.airnow. gov) monitors air quality. In February 2015, the Department of State and EPA formed a partnership to extend that capability to measure air pollution at embassies and consulates around the world. EPA’s website provides real-time information on air quality in the following cities: Addis Ababa, Bogota, Chen- nai, Dhaka, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Jakarta, Lima, Mumbai, New Delhi, Pristina and Ulaanbaatar. (Visit www.airnow.gov for those reports; click the Department of State logo at the top right. China’s air quality is measured on a separate site, www.stateair.net, but this data is scheduled to be merged with the AirNow website.) According to the State Department’s Air Pollution Work- ing Group—a joint policy-management-medical program that examines the issue of air quality and its effects on employee and family health—more overseas posts will be added to the AirNow site in the near future. Real-time AQI data can also be found at www.aqicn.org (this website is run out of China). And an open-access U.S. website (http://labs.openaq.org/aq-viz/) plots real-time AQI comparisons among Beijing, New Delhi and Ulaanbaatar. Finally, the World Health Organization maintains a database listing annual averages of PM10 and PM2.5 levels for 3,000 cities in 103 countries. While this data is updated yearly (most recently in July), it can be misleading for cities that are prone to seasonal air pollution (e.g., parts of Central Asia and Eastern Europe, where it is common to burn coal and wood during the cold winter months). The recent availability of accessible air quality data can help Foreign Service employees and their family members better pre- pare themselves when they bid on or move to heavily polluted posts. However, we often have little understanding of what living with severe pollution actually feels like until we arrive at post. I think a huge part of the problem is that there’s just no frame of reference for how bad it is. So you really don’t get it until you take that first breath of soot, exhaust or burning fecal matter. We’ve been lucky in that the kids haven’t had any health issues from the pollution so far, but I shudder to think about long-term effects. Two times it has really hit home, however: First, when my 3-year-old told everyone back home that the sun is gray in India, not yellow; and last year, when we stepped off the plane at night in Siem Reap, my 4-year-old took a deep breath and said, wide-eyed, “What is that smell?!” I looked at all the tropical flowers lining the tarmac and sighed, “Fresh air and flowers, honey.” —Jennie Willson, who served in New Delhi from 2014 to 2016 Nicole Schaefer-McDaniel holds a Ph.D. in environmen- tal psychology and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in urban health. She left academia when her husband, John McDaniel, joined the Foreign Service in 2009. After assignments in Sao Paulo and Vienna, they currently serve in Ulaan- baatar, where Dr. Schaefer-McDaniel teaches in the study abroad program of the School for International Training.