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How PurpleAir's Founder Put Air Quality Monitoring In The Hands Of The Public

Kerry Klein
/
Valley Public Radio
In less than three years, PurpleAir has distributed over 1,100 of these devices to dozens of countries around the world. About a third are located in California.

We’ve been reporting a lot these last few weeks about PurpleAir, a new brand of low-cost, wifi-enabled air monitors that are enabling concerned citizens across the world to crowd-source air quality data. After speaking with public agencies, academics and advocacy groups about the promise of these devices, we were curious: Who created PurpleAir, and how did its product become so popular?

Listen to the audio above for the full interview with PurpleAir’s founder Adrian Dybwad about why he started the company, how the devices work, and the surprising way in which they’re made.

Kerry Klein is an award-winning reporter whose coverage of public health, air pollution, drinking water access and wildfires in the San Joaquin Valley has been featured on NPR, KQED, Science Friday and Kaiser Health News. Her work has earned numerous regional Edward R. Murrow and Golden Mike Awards and has been recognized by the Association of Health Care Journalists and Society of Environmental Journalists. Her podcast Escape From Mammoth Pool was named a podcast “listeners couldn’t get enough of in 2021” by the radio aggregator NPR One.
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