The Foreign Service Journal, October 2021

44 OCTOBER 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL toring program called DOSAir. With the installation of ground- based monitors approved for regulatory use in the United States, DOSAir provides reliable, transparent data to mission personnel and the general public. A Welcome Initiative Since the launch of the DOSAir program in 2015 by then– Secretary of State John Kerry and former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, State has expanded its own network of reference-grade air quality monitors to almost 80 embassies and consulates. The monitors are made in the United States, and installed and main- tained by a small American company. The technical requirements and data are all transparent and available to the public. Because the program is transparent and underpinned both by American manufacturing and decades of EPA expertise, it has spurred productive partnerships with other countries. Marcia Bernicat, U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh from 2015 to 2018, witnessed this. “The really excellent news is, yes, overwhelm- ingly governments welcome our [air quality] initiative,” she said at GDI’s 10th anniversary celebration in 2020. “They trust our equipment and data.” Countries in South and Central Asia experience some of the worst air quality in the world. The 2020 State of Global Air ranked India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh in the top 10 countries for population-weighted annual average fine particulate exposures in 2019. The report also found air pollution was the second lead- ing risk factor for premature death in Bangladesh in 2019, an issue well known to our embassy staff and families in Dhaka. In 2016, Ambassador Bernicat and her team oversaw the installa- tion of an air quality monitor and encouraged their partners to use and share the data. Ambassador Alice Wells, a former senior official in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs (SCA), served throughout the region and knew the importance of coordi- nated action. She launched an initiative to install EPA-approved monitors at all SCA posts in 2018 through SCA’s Council on Air Quality, which continues to engage with U.S. personnel and families on the topic. Wells learned that overseas personnel and their families wanted a mobile app with automated alerts to help themmake decisions, such as when to jog, whether to cancel outdoor activities or whether to wear a mask. This was the gen- esis for the initial development of ZephAir, the department’s first air quality mobile application. To make the data more accessible, GDI developed ZephAir with support from State’s Air Pollution Working Group and SCA. The name ZephAir is inspired by the Greek word zephyros , or “west wind.” Air quality data is now at everyone’s fingertips. ZephAir displays the EPA Air Quality Index (AQI) from the department’s monitors and from reference monitors run by some other countries. Features include the display of real-time data, 24-hour air quality trends and the daily AQI for the previ- ous week. Users can save locations to easily track air quality in their cities of interest. They can also enable push notifications to receive alerts when AQI levels change and recommendations on how to reduce exposure to high air pollution levels and health risks. U.S. Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Donald Lu looks at Embassy Bishkek’s Air Quality Monitor in 2019. U.S.EMBASSYBISHKEK