Goals of 2023

Improve residents' health, quality of life, and understanding of air pollution impacts by installing portable air cleaners for 300 residents in Clairton and adjacent municipalities.
To compensate and grow VCAN leaders through fair stipends, transportation, and childcare support for those who lead the strategic direction of VCAN, and contribute to the working group projects.
Conduct a community health survey to assess the prevalence of specific health outcomes in residents of the Mon Valley with a goal of 500 completed surveys.

Programs of 2023

EPA Air Monitoring

We want to hold public powers and private companies accountable for their responsibilities to uphold environmental protections. To do that, we hope to establish 12 new monitoring sites through the Mon Valley to collect better data on air quality and raise awareness among residents on how the reading affects them.

Air Filter Program

Improve residents' health, quality of life, and understanding of air pollution impacts by installing portable air cleaners for 300 residents in Clairton and adjacent municipalities.

Low-Cost Filter Design, Testing, and Initial Production

VCAN will lead a project to test, design and facilitate the production of very low-cost air filters suitable for large-scale production. During the first year, we hope to numerically evaluate the efficacy of such filters and also develop cost models to project their cost in quantity.

Community Health Assessment

There is widespread concern among community members in VCAN that outdoor air pollution is contributing to poor health outcomes in residents. VCAN is working on a community health assessment pilot project to assess the prevalence of specific health outcomes in Mon Valley residents.

Advocacy and Education Design for Deployment

VCAN will collaborate with CMU Design students to create new advocacy and design materials suitable for public engagement around air quality—not only to explain the harms of the poor air quality that we face but also to concretely suggest specific ways in which residents can respond to these harms.

Quantification of Air Quality Harm

An important, missing part of the story is an economic quantification of the dollar harm done by poor air in our region—to students, to families, to residents; and to the communities as a whole. VCAN will lead a project engaging with Nick Muller and others in our research community to develop cost models that can be used to show the economic and monetary harm of bad air with clear metrics and numbers that are undeniable.