Your neighborhood
This is a Neighborhood Tabulation Area (NTA). Read about different geographies.
What affects air quality in your neighborhood
We combine data from our citywide air quality monitoring system, NYCCAS, with a lot of other data to understand what makes one neighborhood's air quality better or worse than another's. We found that building density, industrial areas, traffic density, and truck traffic are associated with worse air quality.
Your neighborhood has high building density.
Building density affects a neighborhood's air quality because like vehicles, buildings burn fuel and emit pollutants: their boilers run on oil, gas, factcheck to produce heat.
Your neighborhood has medium industrial areas.
Industrial areas affect a neighborhood's air quality because manufacturing may emit pollutants, construction may kick up particulate matter, and increased truck traffic emits pollutants.
Your neighborhood has medium traffic density.
Traffic density affects a neighborhood's air quality because of tailpipe emissions as well as particulate matter from tires and braking.
Your neighborhood has low truck traffic.
Truck traffic density affects a neighborhood's air quality because trucks produce additional pollutants that other vehicles don't, because diesel exhaust blah blah blah.
Air pollution in your neighborhood
We can predict air quality by understanding these factors. So if we don't have an air quality monitor in one neighborhood, but we know its building density, its industrial area, and its traffic, then we can model (estimate or predict) its air quality - based on monitored air quality in similar neighborhoods.
PM2.5 (or fine particles) worsen lung and heart diseases and are linked to cancer and premature death. NYC meets the EPA's standard is an annual average of 12 μg/m3 (or 35 μg/m3 for 24 hours), but short-term PM2.5 concentrations sometime exceeds this threshold.
Nitrogen dioxide is linked to asthma hospitalizations and other respiratory conditions. NYC meets EPA's standard is an annual average of 53ppb (or 100ppb for 1 hour), but short-term concentrations sometimes exceed this threshold.
"How's the air qualiy right now?"
Annual averages tell us one thing - but real-time data can tell us another. Explore air quality where we have real-time air quality monitors.
For more air quality data, see The NYCCAS Annual Report.