Change is in the air in central New York, but unfortunately, all that construction could leave harmful substances, too.
Researchers at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry are working to make sure central New Yorkers have more information about air quality.
Jaime Mirowsky, an associate professor of chemistry and environmental health at SUNY ESF, said she has been thinking about incorporating an air monitoring network in Syracuse for a long time. And she said now is a perfect time to make it happen.
"There's the I-81 project, but there's also just a lot of construction projects that are occurring in the area,” she said.
SUNY ESF, along with a number of community partners, created that network, starting with just one air monitor in 2025 and now growing to five monitors in the Syracuse area. The Onondaga Environmental Institute, Onondaga Earth Corps, FORCE, SUNY ESF, NYS Children’s Environmental Health Center, the City of Syracuse, JustAir, and Upstate Medical University were all involved in the project.
Project coordinators chose to put one monitor at Upstate because it’s close to Interstate 81, and the other four were placed based on feedback from community workshops.
"Most of the big and middle-tier cities will have one monitor, but it's not really representative of the entire area. We know that particles can travel long distances, so if it's not directly where people are, then there's a chance that air quality can kind of be different throughout the area, and we won't know that unless we have these networks,” Mirowsky said.
The results are posted on an online dashboard, where users can check air quality in different locations, download data, and sign up for text messages or emails to alert them when air quality reaches a certain level.
"I know that there are certain people on our team that have, say, asthma, so they have set theirs to a certain level because they know that they're going to be impacted when it's a really bad air quality day, so they can just get an alert, and they don't necessarily have to go and check the dashboard."
Mirowsky said air quality issues, like the recent smoke from Canadian wildfires, can have serious health consequences.
"If people have asthma, then that can aggravate their asthma,” she said. “Long term, it can cause things like changes in lung function. They've also shown cardiovascular changes, so kind of getting a handle on what it is that we're being exposed to can definitely let us know about potential health effects and also how to remediate it."
Mirowsky said she would like to eventually expand the network of air monitors to reach more of Syracuse’s surrounding suburbs.
