nuclear-news

Safecast measuring radiation, now measuring air quality

After tracking radiation levels in Fukushima, Safecast is measuring air quality in the States Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard, By Adrienne LaFrance-21/09/2012 Knight News Challenge funding will help Safecast spearhead data collection in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Detroit. When a nuclear crisis came on the heels of the March 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan, there was an outcry from those seeking accurate information about radiation levels in various prefectures.

The situation prompted a group of friends to launch a crowdsourced Geiger-counting effort  — which eventually grew  into Safecast, a network for collecting and mapping radiation measurements across the world.

Now, with a $400,000 Knight News Challenge grant, Safecast will expand its efforts into air quality testing — starting in Detroit, Los Angeles, and Tokyo. Safecast cofounder Sean Bonner  says the project will help identify good and bad air quality on a granular,
neighborhood-by-neighborhood level. He’s also hoping to track changes in air quality over short periods of time….. http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/09/after-tracking-radiation-levels-in-fukushima-safecast-is-measuring-air-quality-in-the-states/

September 24, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general