As predicted, several Pima County Department of Environmental Quality (PDEQ) air monitoring stations reported elevated levels of small particulate matter during the overnight celebrations for New Year’s Eve. Fireworks and wood burning activities caused smoke to permeate the air and triggered higher than normal readings at the six PDEQ air quality monitoring sites that measure small particulates.
The graph shows that Rose Elementary (near Ajo Way and 12th Ave.) and the Geronimo (near Grant and 1st Ave.) sites had the highest levels of particulate matter, while the Green Valley monitoring site (near La Canada and Desert Bell) had the lowest readings on New Year’s Eve.
Small particulate matter (2.5 microns or less in size) comes from combustion sources and can bypass the body’s natural filter systems and gather deep in the lungs impairing breathing in those at risk.
The good news is that the U.S. EPA air quality standard for PM2.5 is based on a 24-hour average, so when those few high readings were averaged together with the other normal hourly readings, there was no exceedance of that health standard.