The Foreign Service Journal, October 2021

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2021 43 Mary Tran is an IT project management consultant specializing in agile transformation, organizational development and communication. She joined the Greening Diplomacy Initiative in the Office of Management Strategy and Solutions in 2019 to spearhead the development of the air quality mobile application, ZephAir, and support the Department of State’s Air Quality Monitoring Program, DOSAir. A ir pollution is an increasing global health threat. Fromwildfires across Australia and the western United States to the new visibility of the Himalayas in South Asia during the pandemic, 2020 featured drastic changes in air pollution around the world. Long-term exposure to air pol- lution can cause decreased lung func- tion, lower lung capacity and development of diseases like asthma and bronchitis. More than 80 percent of U.S. embassies and State’s air quality monitoring program facilitates engagement with host governments and civil society around the world. BY MARY TRAN consulates are in areas that exceed the U.S. Environmental Protec- tion Agency’s (EPA) annual air quality standard for fine particles. Since 2008, the Department of State has sought to provide better ground-level data to inform the Foreign Service community, U.S. citizens abroad and the communities where they serve. The World Health Organization and other international bod- ies, along with research institutions and the international media, have addressed and reported extensively on air quality. Despite the breadth and significance of the issue and growing interest in it, reliable ground-based data does not exist in many parts of the world. Recognizing this need, in 2008, U.S. Embassy Beijing installed an EPA-approved air quality monitor that provided data to U.S. personnel and citizens to reduce health risks and bolster the public’s understanding of air pollution. Other U.S. diplomatic posts in Mission China and Mission India followed suit, and all continue to provide publicly available air quality data hourly. To help fill in data gaps elsewhere and ensure a coordinated departmentwide approach, the Greening Diplomacy Initia- tive (GDI) in the Office of Management Strategy and Solutions partnered with the EPA in 2015 to launch an air quality moni- FOCUS ON CLIMATE CHANGE DIPLOMACY Tracking Air Quality: Data for Our Community and Beyond