LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — You might not see it, but what's in the air matters in Las Vegas.
In recognition of Air Quality Awareness Week, recognized nationally by the EPA, Channel 13 got a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into the science, data and people keeping us informed every day about the health of our atmosphere.
Geneva Zoltek sees firsthand how scientists are monitoring the air over Las Vegas every single minute of every day:
"I just think it's so interesting because it's a whole different world," said Sarah Knapp, an air quality monitoring technician for Clark County's Department of Environment and Sustainability.
"I'm interested in global warming, so it's just getting to see the patterns of what's actually happening and the real data and not just hearsay of potential causes, but like the root cause of what actually is happening in the atmosphere naturally and not so naturally with human impact," Knapp continued.
The work begins in a small building behind Jerome Mack Middle School, which is one of several air quality monitoring stations dotted across the valley.
Channel 13 got to help measure a sample of one tiny pollutant called PM 2.5 which is fine particulate matter small enough to become lodged in human lungs. On a regular basis, at multiple locations, technicians carefully remove a filter that has been collecting PM 2.5 for 24 hours, place it in a petri dish and send it to a lab for analysis.
But that's not all.
Every minute, stations across the valley measure PM 10, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and more. To see the latest numbers, check the readings in your zip code at AirNow.gov.
"It's just exciting to know these numbers are something that you can physically look at and see and know you know this is happening and impacting our Earth as a whole," Knapp said.
From the monitoring station, samples like the 24-hour sample travel to the "Gravimetrics Lab."
That's where senior tech Matthew Moncayo converts what's collected in the field into hard data. That's done by carefully weighing the sample, which determines how thick the air was during that time.
"So the weight gives us a basis of what we're actually intaking or what's floating around in the air and coming down and has a possibility of us inhaling," Moncayo said. "It's kind of a snapshot in time of how good or bad the air was."
Scientists can then further break down the sample to determine whether it originated locally, drifted in from a distant wildfire, or is simply desert dust.
"Before the Clean Air Act was passed, there was nothing," Moncayo said. "But the Clean Air Act forced industry and forced municipalities to start looking at the air."
