For the past five years, Bard’s Community Sciences Lab has been monitoring Kingston’s air from the top of the Andy Murphy Neighborhood Center on Broadway. Its latest report finds woodburning to be the largest source of “fine particulate matter,” or PM2.5, in Ulster County. PM2.5 can enter the bloodstream and create or worsen health issues.
“Woodburning in general — so, it’s campfires, it’s in your fireplace, it’s even in the most efficient wood pellet stove that you can find — woodsmoke itself creates the most toxic PM2.5 pollution that we have in the Hudson Valley," says Bard Professor Eli Dueker. "It is the most toxic to human health, and also, woodburning creates a direct influence on the rate of climate change in our area.”
The report says PM2.5 levels were higher in the winter and summer months, with peaks around the Fourth of July. Dueker notes no level of exposure to PM2.5 is safe.
The Kingston Air Quality Initiative started as a way to give local officials baseline data in the city, but it’s now part of a broader effort by Bard to ramp up air monitoring in the Hudson Valley, called the “Hudson Valley Community Air Network.” A separate study by Pennsylvania State University recently labeled parts of the Hudson Valley as “air quality monitoring deserts,” having to rely on distant data from cities that may not reflect local conditions. To combat that, Bard scientists recently placed sensors in Red Hook, Poughkeepsie and Newburgh.
Dueker says residents can now access real-time air quality data and alerts via the website JustAir.
"The data that we create with this air network, it can really help communities understand why they have asthma issues, or why it’s hazy on a day," he adds. "And they can look back on the data and actually be able to see it in action.”
Once these sites collect enough data, Dueker says they’ll compile regular air-quality reports for these communities as well.
In Kingston, Community Sciences Lab Manager Desirée Lyle says air quality tends to be worse at the ground level than it is higher up. Lyle says this is often the case in cities, as PM2.5 and other pollutants move more slowly around buildings. But because the Hudson Valley is a river valley, Lyle says you also have to account for atmospheric inversion — periods of time when the upper atmosphere is warmer than the air at ground level, trapping pollution underneath.
“Whatever pollution is in the air; it’s just going to be concentrated on the ground for longer than normal," she explains.
The report finds daily PM2.5 levels on Kingston streets exceeded the World Health Organization’s standards for 20 percent of 2024.
Other polluting factors that aren’t always in our control include wildfires, both nearby and distant. Last fall, firefighters responded to several wildfires around the Northeast, including in Ulster County, but Dueker says overall air pollution in 2024 was less than the year before.
“I think that has to do with the fact that last year we did not have as horrendous a time with Canadian wildfire smoke as we did the year before," he notes.
Still, Dueker says the data so far demonstrates that a lot of Kingston’s air pollution comes from the local community, and therefore, the community can do something about it.
If you’re wondering how air pollution is addressed, Dueker says the answer is mainly time, wind and rain. But he says we all have a role to play in limiting air pollution in the first place, whether that’s biking to the office, switching to sustainable energy sources, or refraining from woodburning (or grilling, or lighting fireworks) when pollution is already high.
“I really love camping, so it was a tough time to actually face the science — which is very clear, and has been clear for years, that woodburning in particular is, in the United States at least, for the most part a recreational activity," says Dueker. "We can make behavioral decisions around that, and we could actually make instant differences in our area.”