On days of heavy pollution in Sulphur, a southwest Louisiana town surrounded by more than 16 industrial plants, Cynthia “Cindy” Robertson once flew a red flag outside her home so her community knew they faced health hazards from high levels of soot and other pollutants.
But she stopped flying the flag after Louisiana passed a law last May that threatened fines of up to $1 million for sharing information about air quality that did not meet strict standards.
On Thursday, Robertson’s group Micah 6:8 Mission and other Louisiana environmental organizations sued the state in federal court over the law they say restricts their free speech and undermines their ability to promote public health in heavily industrialized communities.
Ah the classic Republican thinking “If we can’t stop it, we’ll make it impossible.”
Worked with abortion and now they are doing it on science.
In response to the influx of grassroots air monitoring, Louisiana’s Legislature passed the Community Air Monitoring Reliability Act, or CAMRA, which requires that community groups that monitor pollutants “for the purpose of alleging violations or noncompliance” of federal law must follow EPA standards, including approved equipment that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Maybe, just maybe, if you have a ton of grassroots air quality monitoring, you might have air quality issues. 🤷♂️
They’re going to fine people for “sharing information about air quality that did not meet strict standards”? The irony here is so thick you can spread it on toast.
Fascism.
You can easily build your own air quality sensor. It’s a cheap and awesome science project and you can contribute to a global grassroot sensor network:
I have one running, AMA if you want
Are you in Louisiana? Would providing this data be considered sharing under the law in question?
I’m not in Louisiana. It’s perfectly legal for me to do my own air quality measuring and I am totally allowed to publish them in the land of the free and the home of the brave Germany.
🎶🎵Oh the times, they are a-changin🎵🎶
harmonica solo
I only have one question: How?
Take a look at the website:
https://sensor.community/en/sensors/airrohr/
It looks complicated, but basically you are ordering some thing from AliExpress, connect it via cables (no soldering required), flash a firmware via a software, register an account, put in WiFi data and put it in a box.
ordering some thing from AliExpress
And that’s where the tariffs getcha. Can’t share other people’s data 'cause of Louisiana’s anti-free-speech law; can’t get your own data 'cause of Trump tariffs. Oh yeah, it’s all coming together (the noose, that is).
The name of the town is “Sulphur”. A bit foreboding.
The giveaway was someone named the town Sulphur.
Under the Biden administration, the EPA tightened regulations for these pollutants, though the Trump administration has committed to rolling them back.
The Biden administration’s EPA also injected funding to support community-based air monitoring, especially in neighborhoods on the “fence-line” with industrial plants that emitted pollutants that they were not required to publicly monitor under federal law. Some groups say they lack confidence in the data the state does provide and embraced the chance to monitor the air themselves with federal funding.
Both parties are beholden to their corporate overlords. In this case, Biden was obviously trying to help Big Community Monitoring.
Sounds like some factories need to be updated or shut down
MAHA
Make Air Harmful Again?
My Anus Hurts Again.
You clearly didn’t follow the air quality sensor construction and usage instructions correctly. ;)
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