Air Quality

Healthy air is a vital component of healthy communities. Everyone deserves to breathe safe, healthy air. Unhealthy air that contains pollutants like particulate matter (or particle pollution), ozone, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide can lead to health issues for children. These health issues include lung disease, decreased lung function, development of asthma, asthma attacks, and increased hospital admissions and emergency department visits for asthma.

Love My Air Wisconsin (LMA WI) is a school-based program that provides real-time air quality data to schools via a sensor. School staff and families can then use the data to make informed decisions about student exposure to poor air quality. Teachers can also incorporate the air quality data into lesson plans to provide hands-on, practical learning opportunities for students. Students, families, school staff and community members all benefit from LMA WI’s air quality education, and the opportunity to take action steps to protect their health.

Love My Air Dashboard

Resources

Love My Air Support Team Toolkit

This Toolkit houses key Love My Air Program resources.

Educational Resources

Check out a variety of lesson plans and more!

Outdoor Activity Guide

This guide provides activity suggestions based on local air quality.
(Also available in Spanish)

Training Videos

View these helpful videos to learn how to utilize sensors and other key resources.

Cohort 1 – Love My Air Schools (2023-25)

Allen-Field Elementary School // Browning Elementary School
Hopkins Lloyd Community School
Lincoln Avenue School // Westside Academy

Cohort 2 – Love My Air Schools (2024-25)

Hawthorne School // Carson Academy
Milwaukee High School of the Arts
O.W. Holmes School // Starms Discovery School

Participating schools receive the following:

Love My Air Advisory Committee and Partners

The Love My Air program is guided by an Advisory Committee. The program relies on partnerships with national, state and local entities to accomplish its goals. Contact our staff for more information.

View our Partners

Receive Love My Air Wisconsin Updates

If you are interested in learning more and staying up to date, please sign up to receive our monthly newsletter, Your Dose of Oxygen, containing Love My Air Wisconsin updates!

Follow Air Pup @chawisconsin

Love My Air Wisconsin in Action

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the common outdoor air pollutants?

Carbon monoxide
Nitrogen dioxide
Ozone (also called smog)
Particulate matter (or particle pollution)
Sulfur dioxide
Toxic air pollutants

Visit What Makes Outdoor Air Unhealthy | American Lung Association for more info about each of these pollutants.

Who is most at risk from air pollution?

Children and teens whose lungs are still developing
Older adults
People who live and work near busy highways or factories; due to systemic racism and environmental injustice, this tends to be people of color and/or people with lower incomes
People with cardiovascular disease or diabetes
People with lung diseases like asthma

What can I do to keep myself healthy?

Check the daily air pollution forecast | Check now
If you drive to school, turn off your engine while dropping off or picking up students – idling vehicles give off higher levels of harmful air pollution
Walk, bike or carpool to school
When pollution levels are high, take steps to protect your health:
- Avoid exercising/playing outdoors
- Avoid opening windows
- Keep your quick-relief asthma medication on hand if you are active outdoors
Download the Love My Air Network app
Follow us @chawisconsin for real-time local updates

What is the Air Quality Index (AQI)?

The Air Quality Index, or AQI, is used to warn the public when air pollution is dangerous and can be found at airnow.gov. (View AQI table)

How can I clean my indoor air?

How is the Love My Air program funded?

In 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded us $500,000 for a 3-year project that aims to create a community-based network of neighborhood-level air quality monitoring stations in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, focusing on neighborhoods with high asthma burdens.

We are excited to launch the Love My Air program in Milwaukee in fall 2023! Through this program, we will install air quality sensors at select schools in the Milwaukee Public Schools district. We will engage schools in air quality monitoring activities through involvement in air quality campaigns (like anti-idling), student engagement and leadership, school STEAM curriculum/community science monitoring using sensors, and education and awareness programs for students, families and the community.

The community will also receive education about how to access the neighborhood-level air quality data from those sensors, what the data means, and the action steps tied to that data so that residents have both the tools and knowledge necessary to respond to asthma-related air quality risk factors.

Contact Our Staff

Sarah Kroening, MSpEd
Program Manager
Environmental Health
(414) 266-9730
skroening@childrenswi.org

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Love My Air Wisconsin is funded by the Environmental Protection Agency through EPA-OAR-OAQPS-22-01: Enhanced Air Quality Monitoring for Communities.