EWP Fact Sheets

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OAKRIDGE AIR COMMUNITY INTERVIEWS ON AIR QUALITY AND SMOKE
(Ecosystem Workforce Program, Institute for a Sustainable Environment, University of Oregon, 2022)
The Oregon communities of Oakridge and Westfir have historically been ranked amongst the top 20 communities in the United States with the worst air quality due to high concentrations of particulate matter (PM2.5) from home wood heating (wood stove) and wildfire smoke. We partnered with Oakridge Air, a community-level program funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency and Lane Regional Air Protection Agency, that seeks to mitigate health threats from smoke-related poor air quality in Oakridge, to conduct a pilot study. Approach: We conducted interviews with 22 key informants and community leaders from the Oakridge-Westfir community between April and June of 2022. The key informants were purposively chosen for this pilot study because they provided a connection to multiple parts of the Oakridge-Westfir community. We asked respondents questions related to community understanding of air quality information, effective communication sources, community preparedness for smoke events, and smoke-related air quality concerns and behaviors. These pilot data will be used to inform future research about air quality in the community.