Free Change

Flowers on a Neighborhood Tree

Originally uploaded by gregoniemeyer

Blanca lives in a residential neighborhood in Oakland, CA. Her house is less than a mile away from major freeways, including Interstate 580. “My mother taught me to air out the sheets in the morning” Blanca said, so she was in the habit of letting in the fresh country air when she got up. Once she installed an air quality monitor, she noticed major rises in CO2 and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s) every morning.

The monitor showed her that the net effect of opening the windows in the morning was that all the rush hour highway off-gases entered her home. Now she airs out her apartment before going to bed, around midnight, after the outdoor air had some time to regenerate from a day of pollution. Indeed, the freshest air in cities is consistently between 4 AM and 5 AM.