Update: We applied a few months for this grant, but we were at a less developed stage than we are at now:
- Our paper has been accepted for publication at Atmospheric Environment, here's the accepted article: http://tinyurl.com/nlqkwk8
- In Feb 2015, Dept. of State Sec. Kerry and Admin. McCarthy from EPA signed an agreement to expand air quality monitoring at embassies around the world.
- Our co-author has published a related article in Wired Magazine: http://tinyurl.com/kj22wpz

If we receive funding to make our paper open access, we will credit AWB in all subsequent related articles intended for a general audience.

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According to a report released by the WHO in 2014, 1 in 8 deaths world-wide is due to air pollution, yet the intersection of air quality and health is a field that lacks data in the most polluted places in the world.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing started measuring and tweeting air pollution data in 2008 from a rooftop monitor, and the impact of this real-time, transparent data has been documented in news media. Since the success of the air quality monitor in Beijing, the U.S. has begun measuring and tweeting data from four posts in other cities in China.

To capture the power of air quality data and inform scientists of the existence of this new a source of info in these understudied areas, we have done the first-ever analysis of the historical record in all five cities.

For the first time, our study highlights the novel existence and potential uses of air quality data that is currently systematically being collected and made publicly accessible by U.S. embassies in polluted but under-studied locations. This work is a very valuable resource to those working on air quality issues in developing countries, where access to such research is often limited. It should be freely available to air pollution researchers in developing country communities.