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Health director confident in Hopkinton’s air quality

FILE PHOTO/JERRY SPAR

Despite a new rash of wildfires bringing smoke over the region, the town’s health director remains confident in the town’s air quality.

“Right now, our air quality’s good,” said Health Director Shaun McAuliffe.

High-altitude wildfire smoke has drifted in recent days from the West Coast to over New England. A historic wildfire season in Washington and Oregon this year has burned more than 2.9 million acres. The resulting smoke has been picked up by the jet stream and carried into the region.

McAuliffe explained that most of the smoke is remaining in the upper atmosphere, resulting in minor impacts to the town’s air quality. He noted that for other wildfire events when the smoke makes it lower into the atmosphere, older residents and those with respiratory illnesses are at the highest risk of adverse impacts.

The Health Department monitors the town’s air quality through a system of sensors installed in late 2024. The sensors were funded through a grant and are meant both for public education and providing actionable data to local and state authorities.

According to the health director, the system can be monitored in real time through a platform called Purple Air, which is accessible to both town officials and residents. He said that his department plans to add more sensors to town, and he has been working with his interns to review data that has been generated.

In a follow-up email, McAuliffe shared the high-level insights from an analysis of the data. He affirmed that there is “excellent air quality in the region.” Air flowing from the south and southwest can bring pollutants from industrial areas, but few pollutant sources sit west of town, he explained.

Wildfire events do explain high peaks in air quality readings, he stated. However, elevated concentrations of pollutants picked up by the sensors appear to coincide with peak commuting times — particularly during school drop-off and pickup.

The data collected will be included in a forthcoming community health assessment developed by the Health Department interns. It also will inform other initiatives, such as considering the adoption of wildfire smoke programs used in Washington and developing communications strategies for air quality alerts.

“We’re working on finding solutions to communicate this information more effectively to the public,” said McAuliffe.

— NICK SCHOFIELD

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Photo of the Day

Flowers bloom in a grassy section of the Legacy Farms neighborhood.

PHOTO/AMIT JAGDALE