Outdoor Air Quality Flag Program

The Outdoor Air Quality Flag Program is a school-based, visual environmental health intervention designed to help reduce the exposure of children (and adults) to outdoor air pollution, including known environmental asthma triggers like ozone and particles.

The program offers an education as well as educational materials to administrators, school staff, students and parents on air quality and the health impacts of prolonged exposure to air pollution. The Air Quality Flag Program serves as a visual communication device to alert administrators, school staff, students, parents and the surrounding community of the daily air pollution risks by utilizing colored flags. The flag notification system corresponds directly to health descriptors of the Air Quality Index (AQI).

The program aims to accomplish two things in Central California: (1) permanently change local policy with respect to existing operating procedures in school districts and schools to help reduce exposure of students, teachers, staff and nearly communities to outdoor environmental asthma triggers ;and (2) provide education on air quality and potential health effects from exposure to air pollutants.

This intervention has been ongoing at school campuses with over 53,000 students, teachers, and staff, as well as at other community locations with over 1,200 employees in Merced County, and over 33,800 teachers, students, and staff and 2,200 employees at other locations in Tulare County. Limited short-term impact data from two counties noted that 86% of respondents (n=77) stated that their schools provided alternatives to more strenuous exercise outdoors, schedule modifications for student activities, or both, on poor-air-quality days. Additionally, four out of five respondents agreed that the colored flags made teachers and staff more aware of the relationships between air quality and children's health, and made everyone more aware of poor-air-quality days in their community or region.