US Embassies Suspend Air Pollution Monitoring

March 5, 2025 Environment, Trump Administration

U.S. embassies and consulates have stopped monitoring air quality abroad, ending a program that had provided essential public health data for more than a decade. The State Department said its collection of air pollution data at more than 60 U.S. embassies and consulates around the world had been suspended as of Tuesday due to “budget constraints.”

The air quality data had been published on AirNow, a website run by the Environmental Protection Agency, and ZephAir, a mobile app managed by the State Department.

The website was offline as of Wednesday, while data is no longer available on the app for numerous cities including China’s Beijing, India’s Mumbai and Thailand’s Bangkok, all of which were among the world’s most polluted cities on Wednesday according to IQAir, a Swiss air quality-monitoring company.

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I lived in Beijing in the era of airpocalypse, and the US embassy’s air quality monitor helped push China to change policies. It improved health and transparency for Chinese and US citizens. It cost nothing. It was a big success. @SecRubio shut it down: https://t.co/RyYZ17RxWD

— Edward Wong (@ewong) March 5, 2025

U.S. embassies will no longer publish data on local pollution levels. In many places, it was the only reliable source of such information. https://t.co/EYFOsMKyJ3

— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 5, 2025