Ryan Flynn

Mr. Lee

AP Environmental Science

February 28, 2017

AQI Lab

Data Table:

EPA Air Quality Index Data

Days Per Year by Site and Pollutant Type

St. Louis St. Louis Los Angeles Los Angeles
AQI Category
1980 2015 1980 2015
CO Ozone CO Ozone CO Ozone CO Ozone
Very Unhealthy 0 23 0 0 104 123 0 1
Unhealthy 3 39 0 0 173 47 0 30
Unhealthy 6 40 0 9 44 30 0 76

Sensitive
Moderate 140 66 0 60 17 33 0 104
Good 217 198 365 296 28 133 154 211

Throughout this study, it can be seen that pollutants can be more or less volatile on a day

to day basis. This data table also shows information on how pollutants effecting an area can

change over time. The goal of this lab was to research different pollutants effecting both St.

Louis and Los Angeles in the years 1980 and 2015. For this, study the pollutants Carbon

Monoxide (CO) and Ozone were selected. Shown in the data table, in 1980, St. Louis had 189

more days than Los Angeles where the pollution of CO was labeled as good. Along with this data

it shows, that in 2015, Los Angeles had only one day where ozone was labeled as very unhealthy,

compared to St. Louis which had no days where ozone was labeled very unhealthy. Lastly, in

2015, there were no days where Los Angeles had CO labeled as anything other than good.

Across the four maps used in this experiment (can be seen at the bottom of report) several

things seem to be similar throughout the maps. First of all being that they all seem to have the
worst air quality during the summer. Along with this observation it can be seen that air quality

has increased from 1980 to 2015, and ozone seems to be the pollutant that it most often labeled

as very unhealthy. As previously stated, air quality in both Los Angeles and St. Louis have

increase dramatically. Los Angeles went from having a combined 447 days (some overlapping)

where both CO and Ozone were labeled as either unhealthy or very unhealthy. On the other hand

in 2015, Los Angeles only had a combined 31 total days where Ozone and CO were labeled as

either unhealthy or very unhealthy.

Out of both of the cities that were researched, it seems that over the years St. Louis has

had the better air quality. The pollutants in St. Louis were more often labeled as good than in Los

Angeles. Some of the likely causes of the differences of the two cities are industry, cars, and

overall population. With Los Angeles being the second largest city in the country, it already has

odds in its favor to be much more polluted than St. Louis. In larger cities, more people own cars

and more industries are being run in order to support the large and rapidly growing population,

this causes lot of harm to the environment through pollutants.

Results of this study show that major cities in the United States have shown signs of

pollution throughout the years. During 1980, the pollution seemed to be much worse than in

2015. As time wears on, people continually grow smarter about treating the environment smarter,

which is most like the reason for an increase in air quality since 1980. Renewable energy is on

the rise causing for less pollutants to be emitted into the environment.