What is the air quality in New Delhi, Jakarta and Buenos Aires? Until Tuesday, the US embassies in those cities may have told you.
However, the Trump administration has effectively shut down global air quality surveillance programs, has ended public data collection for over a decade, reporting from 80 embassies and consulates around the world.
This information has supported the research and helped thousands of foreign service officers working abroad determine whether it is safe for children to play outdoors, leading directly to improving air quality in countries like China.
The State Department said in an email that the program has been suspended “due to budget constraints.”
Health officials and environmental experts said ending air quality surveillance would hurt Americans overseas, especially those who work for the US government.
“Embassies can be in extremely difficult air quality situations,” said Gina McCarthy, who headed the Obama administration's Environmental Protection Agency.
She, along with John Kelly, then Secretary of State, expanded globally what was a limited but transformative air surveillance effort in China.
“We can't send people to dangerous areas without information,” McCarthy said. “We generally consider dangerous areas to be war zones and so on. But it's equally important to find out if their health is getting worse because they are in very low health.”
In 2008, US authorities in Beijing installed air quality monitors on the roof of the US embassy and eventually began posting data every hour on the levels of one of the most dangerous types of air pollutants, known as PM 2.5. Particles can enter the lungs and bloodstream and are associated with respiratory problems, heart attacks and other serious health effects.
Information revealed what locals already know. Pollution is far worse than the Chinese government admits.
“All hell is loose,” McCarthy recalled. The Chinese government tried to pressure the US embassy to stop the release of data, calling the measurements illegal and attempting to attack the quality of science, she and others said.
In the end, Chinese officials relented. They introduced their own surveillance system, increased pollution prevention budgets, and eventually began working with the US on air quality projects.
In 2015, McCarthy and Kelly announced they would expand air surveillance across the US diplomatic mission, arguing that air pollution like climate change requires global data and solutions.
A 2022 study published in the minutes of the National Academy of Sciences found that the host country took action when the US embassy began tracking local air pollution. The study found that microparticle concentration levels have been significantly reduced in cities with US monitors since 2008, reducing the risk of premature deaths for over 300 million people.
Dan Westerbert, a research professor at the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, said many countries had no public air quality monitoring and embassy data provided reliable information to researchers.
Dr. Westervelt said he was working on the project through the State Department using air quality data from embassies in five West African countries, but was ordered to stop when President Trump took office in January.
“In my opinion, it puts the health of foreign service officers at risk,” he said. “But they also hinder potential research and policies.”
This data was published on Airnow, a website managed by both the EPA and the Department of State, and Zephair, a mobile application run by the Department of State. On Tuesday, the website was offline and no data was displayed on the app.
The State Department said the embassy's aviation monitor will continue to run for an undecided period, but will not send live data to the app or other platforms.
According to an internal email viewed by The New York Times, embassies and other posts can retrieve historical data until the end of the month.
