SOUTHWICK — In an attempt to understand why a lot of students in the district’s schools have been diagnosed with asthma, the town’s interim health director asked the Select Board to approve a grant to purchase and install three sensors in town to monitor air quality.
“I’ve been talking a lot with the school district’s nurse, and they are seeing a lot of kids with asthma,” said interim Health Director Caileen Simonds at the board’s meeting Monday.
“They have a lot of asthma action plans, and I am trying to look into why that is. So, I think these air sensors will help us collect some data to understand why and hopefully help, if possible,” Simonds said.
The three monitors, PurpleAir Flex, cost about $300 and are perfect for residential, commercial, or industrial users looking to collect real-time PM2.5 data from a tough, inconspicuous sensor, according to the sensor manufacturer’s website.
The PM2.5 data refers to measurements of fine particulate matter that are 2.5 micrometers or smaller in diameter.
Simonds proposed placing one at the public library, one at Southwick Regional School and one at Town Hall.
To operate, the sensors only need a power supply and a Wi-Fi network to connect to, she said.
She said she spoke with the maintenance director at Town Hall, the administration of the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District and the DPW director.
“They’ve all been very helpful, and they think it’s a good idea,” Simonds said.
Select Board member Douglas Moglin suggested spreading them out instead of clustering them around the center of town.
“That was my question, too,” said Select Board chair Diane Gale.
Moglin suggested installing one at the DPW for the north side of town and approaching management at Big Y to see if they would be amenable to installing one there to cover the south side of town.
“Maybe we could talk to our friends at Big Y or something like that for the south side of town,” he said.
Gale said that if one is installed at the public library and one at SRS, “they might give you the same results,” she said.
Westfield has several air quality monitors, Moglin said, that show the air quality in “the city varies greatly from one area to another.”
Simonds said she expects the same thing.
“We’re going to see quite a varying in pollutants, especially because we’re so close to Springfield. Springfield’s seeing some of the worst air quality it’s seen in years, as well as adverse health effects from known pollutants. So, I’m very interested to see [our results],” she said.
Select Board member Russ Anderson said the sensors could also be helpful in the event of an incident.
“They’re live, right? So, if we had an incident with something, we could look at the plumes,” Anderson said.
The board voted unanimously to accept the grant for the sensors, which will be monitored for at least one year.
In other board business, Moglin said he’s been approached by a district school official who is thinking about trying to put a digital sign at the entrance to SRS.
And, he said, the official wants to make the sign available for the town to use.
“They feel it would be supplemental to the town crier [sign] at the center of town by Berkshire Bank,” he said.
He said the sign would be 6-by-8 feet.
“It might be a good use. These signs have gotten way less expensive than they used to be, and you can convey a ton of information, and update them in a heartbeat,” Moglin said.
He asked that it be an agenda item at an upcoming meeting.
