First Air Quality Flag Launched at Carrisa Plains Elementary School

Written by Gary Arcemont | 01 July 2009

On Tuesday, May 12, the APCD in partnership with the Carrisa Plains Elementary School flew the first Air Quality Flag in San Luis Obispo County. Using the color-coded scale according to the Air Quality Index (AQI), this flag program provides schools with enhanced tools to help children, their parents and school personnel become better informed on air pollution levels. School officials will fly the flag, which corresponds to the daily AQI forecast color, on the school flagpole. The APCD is now working to expand this Flag Program to school sites throughout the County
Used in many regions throughout the United States, this is an important outreach tool to increase awareness of daily air quality throughout the County by making information easily assessable. In addition, the AQI will increase the District’s effectiveness at reaching the community with immediate health information to take special precautions when our region is impacted by smoke from wildfires or high wind dust events.
The AQI was developed by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is a user-friendly index for reporting daily air quality. It tells you how clean or polluted the air is, and what associated health effects might be a concern. The AQI focuses on health effects individuals may experience within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. The AQI is currently available to the public via the APCD website www.slocleanair.org, email, pager messages, and text messages. To sign up to receive the daily air quality forecast via email, page or text message subscribe online at www.enviroflash.info/.
For more information contact Gary Arcemont at 805-781-5912.