Best Practice Action Detail

Air quality alerts

• Understanding the air quality index (AQI)
• An air quality alert means that air quality conditions across a portion of Minnesota are unhealthy for some or all people. The MPCA issues air quality alerts on days with poor air quality, when the AQI is 101 or higher for fine particle pollution, ozone, or blowing dust. 
• Follow the MPCA AQI on social media (Facebook) and subscribe to EnviroFlash emails to get air quality alerts as they are issued. Air quality messaging from MPCA can be shared widely. Decision-makers who want more information or clarity on alerts are welcome to call and talk to the air quality forecasters directly at 651-757-2766. 
• Download EPA’s AirNow app to get current conditions and MPCA’s daily air quality forecast on mobile devices. The map also shows known active fires and smoke outlooks across the U.S. You may also find current air quality index information on your weather app.

Clean Air Spaces

• Schools as community cleaner air and cooling centers (EPA, 2025)
• Identification of cleaner air shelters/spaces for protection from wildfire smoke (Oregon Health Authority, 2017)
• Build a DIY air cleaner using a box fan, air filters, carboard, scissors, and duct tape (EPA, 2025)
• Simple instructions for a do-it-yourself air cleaner  (American Lung Association, 2022)

Policies and Protocols

• Minnesota Outdoor Air Quality Guidance for Schools and Child Care (Minnesota Department of Health, 2024)
• Athletes and Asthma: The Community Coach's Role (Minnesota Department of Health, 2025)
• An air quality protocol could be included with similar existing protocols for lightning, heavy snowfall, or extreme hot or cold weather.
• Include actions that your audience can take during air quality alerts to stay aware, protect their health, and reduce their individual pollution contributions, and how those actions are different depending on whether the alert is for ozone or particulate matter. 

Air Sensors 

• Learn about the types of air sensors and their uses from the MPCA website. 
• Co-benefit: Adding sensors in rural parts of Minnesota will help improve MPCA’s air quality forecasting. 
• The City of Minneapolis has an air quality monitoring program that uses PurpleAir Sensors that residents can “host”. 
• See Strategies for Enhancing Air Quality and Public Health through Low-Cost Sensors (Harvard, 2024)

Fine particle pollution 

• Avoid adding to the problem during air quality alerts for fine particle pollution such as wildfire smoke: Limit driving. Don’t use fireplaces, firepits, fireworks, grills, candles, incense, or gasoline-powered lawn and garden equipment. 
• Fireworks can contaminate an entire census track.
  • Fireworks: Air quality and health effects (Wisconsin DNR)
  • Fireworks contribute to short-term but significant increases in air pollution. One study found an average 42% increase nationwide in fine particle pollution after the Fourth of July. Firework explosions also result in sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and metals, such as magnesium to be released into the air. A Minneapolis study found late in the evening on July 4th particle pollution increased 180-600% and carbon monoxide concentrations increased 32%.
• Air pollution removal by urban forests (National Park Service)
• Breathing Fresh Air in the City: Implementing Avenue Trees as a Sustainable Solution to Reduce Particulate Pollution in Urban Agglomerations (National Library of Medicine, 2023)

Ozone

• Unhealthy ozone levels can aggravate lung diseases like asthma, emphysema, and COPD. When air quality is unhealthy, people with these conditions may experience symptoms like difficulty breathing deeply, shortness of breath, throat soreness, wheezing, coughing or unusual fatigue. 
• MPCA Ozone webpage
• Volatile Organic Compounds in your home (MN Dept of Health, 2024) 

Blowing dust

• Blowing dust is only likely to reach air quality alert levels when soil or dirt is part of the mix, but it can also include ash, pollen, mold, salt, and other materials. 
• Common sources of the widespread blowing dust that can lead to air quality alerts are plowed fields and dried areas previously covered by water such as floods or ponds. Local sources of blowing dust include plowed fields, unpaved roads, construction sites, storage piles, parking lots, sand and gravel pits, asphalt plants, and grain elevators. MN rules require prevention of windblown dust. 
• Prevent blowing dust from agricultural fields by encouraging landowners to install windbreaks or cover crops. USDA outlines Agricultural Air Quality Conservation Measures (2012). 
• More than a nuisance, breathing blowing dust can cause short- and long-term health problems for anyone. Short-term problems can include itchy eyes, coughing, wheezing, phlegm, and difficulty breathing. Long-term problems may include increased risk of premature death, asthma and COPD, lung disease, cancer, and premature birth. In addition, plants’ ability to photosynthesize is limited. Plants and animals that live in the water are affected, too: dust blown into lakes and rivers can result in unwanted algae growth and low oxygen levels from too much sediment and nutrients in the water. 
• Reducing dust from permitted facilities (MPCA, 2025). Includes ideas for a dust control plan. 
• Voluntary environmental improvement ideas for businesses (MPCA, 2022)
• How can trees protect us from air pollution and urban heat? Associations and pathways at the neighborhood scale (Landscape and Urban Planning, 2023)