Polluting the Poor in San Francisco

If you are on a low income in San Francisco then you are probably breathing polluted air. On average the poorest San Franciscans have a 30% higher exposure to nitrogen dioxide than other residents in the city. If you are poor and black then you are probably breathing in even more polluted air. Neighborhoods with high densities of Black, Latino and Asian residents have on average 55 percent more nitrogen dioxide than neighborhoods with mostly White residents.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (Air District) and the company Aclima have joined forces to map the air pollution levels in all nine counties of the Bay Area. To achieve this Aclima drove specialized sensor-equipped cars around the Bay Area, measuring the air quality on every public street. The result is air pollution data on more than 5,000 square miles in 101 cities. Providing air pollution data for nearly eight million people.

You can explore the results of Aclima and Air District's survey of air pollution levels on Air.Health, an interactive map which shows air pollution levels at the block level. Enter an address into Air.Health and you can view the individual air pollution levels for Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5), Ozone (O3), Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Carbon Dioxide (CO2).