The politics of airing grievances: an analysis of air quality knowledge and ignorance in Pittsburgh

Abstract

ABSTRACT Pittsburgh's airshed is among the most surveilled and studied in the United States, yet its residents continue to endure some of the worst air quality in the United States. In 2016, in response to the decades-long failure of the local Board of Health to take decisive action against regional polluters, Pittsburgh residents began documenting their air quality complaints using the Smell Pittsburgh app. Drawing from an analysis of thousands of Smell Pittsburgh users’ reports, interviews with local air activists, and observations of Board of Health meetings, we investigate why air quality authorities dismiss the information generated by Smell Pittsburgh. By examining the Smell Pittsburgh data and asking what is being ignored by environmental regulators, we show that the app is threatening insofar as it serves as a repository of uncomfortable knowledge that testifies to the extent of environmental suffering generated by the region's hazardous air.