Sufferers, workers, and surrounding neighborhood members at 3 Denver well being clinics will quickly have extra entry to real-time native air high quality info from the town of Denver’s Love My Air program. The Kaiser Permanente Neighborhood Well being Fund on the Denver Basis is funding the enlargement.
The Denver Division of Public Well being & Setting, Mayor Mike Johnston, Kaiser Permanente, and neighborhood companions unveiled Love My Air’s new air high quality monitoring stations and academic kiosks in April 2025.
The brand new stations will likely be put in at Tepeyac Neighborhood Well being Heart, Interior Metropolis Well being, and the Kaiser Permanente East Denver Medical Workplaces by Alameda Avenue and Havana Avenue.
“Monitoring air high quality in real-time helps us higher perceive native environmental impacts and empowers communities to make knowledgeable choices about their well being,” stated Mayor Johnston. “Due to Kaiser Permanente, Tepeyac Neighborhood Well being Heart, and Interior Metropolis Well being for partnering with us to deliver air high quality schooling straight into the areas the place individuals search care and assist.”
Love My Air makes use of cutting-edge air high quality screens to collect hyperlocal air pollution information. Because it began in 2018, this system has used interactive academic kiosks inside colleges and the Love My Air app to ship air high quality info throughout Denver neighborhoods.
The cell app permits anybody to entry Love My Air’s information and dashboard. The dashboard has easy guides and definitions in English and Spanish to assist individuals plan outside actions and decrease their publicity to probably dangerous pollution.
“Poor air high quality has vital damaging well being impacts, and entry to real-time air high quality info will likely be a game-changer for communities who’ve lengthy suffered the worst results of air air pollution in Denver,” stated Mike Ramseier, regional president of Kaiser Permanente in Colorado. “Love My Air’s work aligns completely with Kaiser Permanente’s mission to supply high-quality, reasonably priced care and enhance the well being of the communities we serve.”
Air pollution’s influence on well being
The enlargement into well being clinics was a pure subsequent step for Love My Air.
“There was analysis that reveals that persons are extra more likely to act on air high quality recommendation in the event that they obtain it from a well being care skilled,” stated Nancy Fitzgerald, a program specialist with Love My Air. “So, it’s an evidence-based strategy.”
Air air pollution is answerable for tens of 1000’s of deaths yearly within the U.S. It decreases lung perform, causes coronary heart assaults, bronchial asthma assaults, and bronchitis, and makes different well being situations worse. Kids are particularly inclined to the long-term results of air air pollution — bodily and developmentally.
Elevated entry to native info makes a distinction, stated Chris Fellenz, MD, Household Drugs, and director of security web partnerships with Kaiser Permanente in Colorado.
“I am an asthmatic. On the times once I’m working, if there’s poor air high quality from a wildfire or from ozone, I do not go for my lunch stroll,” he stated. “If sufferers have entry to that info, then they will make knowledgeable choices which can be really going to protect their well being.”
Try Love My Air’s air high quality dashboard.
