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Mayor Craig Greenberg has proclaimed May 5-9, 2025, as Air Quality Awareness Week in Louisville, joining the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District (APCD) and partners across the country in raising awareness of local air quality and the work that is done to protect it.
Over the last few decades, Louisville has seen a significant reduction in local air pollution emissions and an improvement in air quality, including an over 85% reduction in emissions of toxic air pollution from industrial sources and around an 80% reduction in poor air quality days.
Certain factors — like increases in hot, dry weather and smoke from wildfires — have counteracted some of that progress. Still, local emission reductions are expected to continue in the coming years, along with Louisville’s long-term air quality progress.
Air quality alerts and forecasts help Louisville residents plan and prepare for poor air quality conditions. Residents can access live air quality conditions 24/7 through resources like APCD’s Louisville Air Watch.
“Just a few small can help residents protect their health and reduce their own emissions.” said Rachael Hamilton, director of the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District. “Now is an excellent time to get familiar with air quality tools like the Air Quality Index, live air monitoring resources like Louisville Air Watch, and sign up to receive air quality alerts.”
AQI Trends from APCD's AQI Dashboard
Symptoms associated with exposure to poor air quality vary by air pollutant, but often include coughing, shortness of breath, fatigue, or aggravation of pre-existing conditions like asthma, COPD, or heart disease. Groups that are sensitive to air pollution include children, older adults, and those with pre-existing lung or heart conditions.
Businesses and organizations in Louisville can help by taking part in APCD’s Air Quality Action Partners (AQAP) program, which encourages voluntary commitments from businesses to help improve air quality and increase air quality awareness.
To be recognized as “Air Quality Action Partners”, businesses and organizations must sign up to receive air quality alerts, have a system to distribute those alerts to their employees, and make at least one additional commitment to improve air quality.
Over 25 businesses and organizations signed up as Air Quality Action Partners in 2024, providing air quality alerts to over 7,000 local employees and reducing local emissions. 2025 partners are encouraged to sign up before May 16 through this form.
This year’s theme for Air Quality Awareness Week, which is put on annually by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is “Stay Air Aware”, and aims to highlight resources that increase air quality awareness and encourages people to stay aware of their air quality and incorporate air quality knowledge into their daily living.
APCD has monitoring sites throughout the city that provide live air quality information.
Air Quality Tools & Resources:
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Air Quality Index (AQI): A tool created by US EPA used to provide air quality forecasts and live air quality conditions through free services like Louisville Air Watch and EPA’s AirNow.gov. The AQI uses values sorted into six color-coded categories ranging from Good (Green) to Hazardous (Maroon) to provide health-based guidance for the public. The public can view Louisville’s daily AQI trends from the past 20 years through the APCD’s AQI Trends Dashboard.
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Air Quality Forecasts: An air quality forecast is generated for two of our area's most common air pollutants; ground-level ozone (O3) and fine particle pollution (PM2.5), using the categories of the Air Quality Index. The forecast is an estimate of the full day's AQI value, which is calculated using an average. Louisville's daily air quality forecast is shared through EPA's AirNow as well as APCD social media accounts, @LouAPCD.
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Air Quality Alerts: When poor air quality is forecast ("Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups" or worse on the Air Quality Index) APCD issues an air quality alert, which encourages members of the public, particularly those groups that are sensitive to air pollution, to limit exposure, take air-friendly actions, and follow live air quality conditions. Air quality alerts are distributed through media, social media, many weather apps, and APCD’s email list.
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Live Air Quality Monitoring: Live air quality conditions are collected through the APCD’s air monitoring network and shared through free resources like APCD’s Louisville Air Watch at louisvilleky.gov/air and US EPA’s AirNow at airnow.gov.
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