Gabriola Island Clean Air Society

We have a very serious wood smoke problem here on Gabriola Island, and there is no doubt that almost 100% of the problem is due to individuals burning wood at home for residential heating. Here's a snapshot from 10:30AM on October 10, 2016, of a new sensor in the Pat Burns area. This level of particulate matter exposure is very hazardous. Note the other readings in the region, especially the sensor only 400m away (as the crow flies) with a reading of 7 at the same time.

As of today, Gabriola Island BC probably has the highest concentration of air quality monitors in the world. Our non-profit uses 8 PurpleAir sensors to provide real time data for an island of 14km by 4km in size with a full time population of around 4000. Why so many? The island has simultaneously some of the world's best and worst air quality, and it can vary from block to block based on the concentration and frequency of residential wood burning activities. To see our sensors go here .

The anatomy of a public health crisis: Wood smoke and its hyper local and rapid degradatory effects on air quality on Canada's west coast. This could be the title of a scientific paper that I am working on. Here are some snapshots from this evening of how one wood stove in a neighbourhood can harm health. It is a graphic example of how localized the effects are and why more distributed monitoring is needed. Of course, it's useless to monitor unless their are penalties for exp osing people to such high risk, day after day, year after year. This time series is from October 2,2016, and it captures snapshots starting at 17:46 and ending at 20:12 Note the good clean air across all six regional PurpleAir sensors initially, and how degraded the Berry Point sensor on Gabriola Island gets. There are real people living near that sensor who are suffering and likely having their lives shortened.