News Detail
August 19, 2020 - Be Mindful of Air Quality This Week
Please be aware of the air quality at your pools this week. Please check reliable air quality sites to determine if your practices should be held or cancelled. Any area that shows an AQI of 150+ should not be holding practices.
Air Quality Issues
The EPA document (EPA-456/f-11-005) "Air Quality and Outdoor Activities: Recommendation for Schools" should be used as a guide that Pacific Swimming can refer to in the decision process for conducting meets/practices.
1. Recommendation
|
AQI of 0-50 |
No impact on meets/practices conduct |
|
AQI of 51-100 |
Meet/practtice held or continued. Decision to swim or not resides with swimmers/coaches/parents. No show penalty, if applicable, suspended at meet |
|
AQI of 101-150 |
Meet/practice may be held or continued, Decision to swim or not resides with swimmers/coaches/parents. No show penalty, if applicable, suspended at meet |
|
AQI of 150+ |
Meet/practice should be cancelled or stopped (if ongoing) |
2. Source of AQI
a. Reliable website(s) should be used for AQI information. A primary site and a secondary (backup) site that provides AQI information on or near (5-15miles) to the swim venue should be used. AQI indices of any location is quite dynamic and can vary greatly depending on weather patterns. Specific location data should be used as the geographic peculiarities of the Bay Area can greatly affect neighboring locals with vast differences in microclimate.
b. The preferred primary site is AirNow.gov (an EPA site). A secondary site (purpleair.com) should also be established as the EPA site could be slowed or completely down due to traffic volume especially before and/or during swim meets. A single point of contact should be established and made responsible for providing the AQI data. Continued (hourly) monitoring should be done if the AQI of the venue is between 101-150.
