ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2025
Identifying air quality monitoring deserts in the United States.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Advancing Long-Term Outdoor Air Pollution Exposure Assessment for Health Studies: Lessons from a Multinational Research Initiative.Current environmental health reports · 2026Review
- Four-Decade (1980-2023) Surface Ozone Concentrations across the Contiguous United States: Fine-Resolution Estimates and Health Implications.Environmental science & technology · 2026Article
- Optimizing Air Pollution Exposure Assessment with Application to Cognitive Function.Research report (Health Effects Institute) · 2025Article
- Identifying air quality monitoring deserts in the United States.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Contribution of social and environmental exposures to lung function decline in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: longitudinal analysis of electronic medical records data.Therapeutic advances in respiratory diseaseArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Air quality is associated with adverse health outcomes and mortality risk. While most research has focused on the association between air quality estimates and these outcomes, little is known about the presence of air quality monitoring sites across the United States or the place-level characteristics associated with such placements. We classify counties without a monitoring station as air quality monitoring deserts. Using the Environmental Protection Agency's AirData active sites directory, we determine the number and location of monitoring deserts. We then study whether demographic and socioeconomic characteristics are associated with the likelihood of a county being a monitoring desert. Our results indicate that 1,848 or 58.8% of US counties are an air quality monitoring desert, covering about 40% of the nation's land area. Our estimates suggest that more than 50 million people or 15.3% of the population live in air quality monitoring deserts. Rural and counties with higher proportions of historically minoritized groups have higher odds of being a monitoring desert. Regionally speaking, air quality monitoring deserts are highly concentrated within the Midwest and the South. These findings highlight gaps in air quality monitoring in the United States. Identifying and addressing air quality monitoring deserts across the United States will allow us to better understand air quality across the nation and expand current knowledge of its impact on national health and well-being.
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Registered trials
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