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Air quality monitoring data isn't just useful for making decisions about your own home — it can also support regulatory complaints, health claims, property value arguments, and community organizing. Knowing how to document effectively turns your monitoring investment into a tool with uses beyond immediate personal protection.
Why Documentation Matters
State environmental agencies, EPA regional offices, and local health departments all accept citizen complaints about landfill odors and emissions. The weight given to those complaints increases significantly when they're supported by date-stamped, quantitative data rather than just subjective descriptions.
Documentation is also important for:
- Health insurance claims for respiratory treatment, if a connection to exposure can be demonstrated
- Property value litigation, if you're in a dispute over how proximity to the landfill has affected your home's value
- Strengthening a community petition for increased monitoring or operational restrictions
- Personal health records tracking your exposure over time
What to Document
For each odor event or elevated reading:
- Date and time (exact, not approximate)
- Duration — when you first noticed and when it dissipated
- Weather conditions — wind direction, speed (use a weather app), temperature, humidity
- Monitor readings — screenshot your air quality monitor app Amazon showing PM2.5, TVOC, CO₂ at the time
- Odor description — "rotten egg/hydrogen sulfide," "garbage/putrid," "chemical/solvent," "sweet/fruity" — different odors may indicate different emission sources
- Physical symptoms experienced — headache, eye irritation, nausea, coughing
- Location when exposure occurred — indoors at home, outdoors in yard, etc.
Airthings View Plus (7-Sensor)
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Awair Element Indoor Air Quality Monitor
PM2.5, CO₂, TVOCs, humidity, temperature with easy-to-read score. Wi-Fi, historical data app. Best balance of simplicity and data.
How to File Complaints
Most states have a 24-hour environmental complaint hotline. Search for "[your state] environmental complaint hotline" or find your EPA regional office contact. When filing:
- Provide the landfill's name and address, not just "the landfill near me"
- Give specific dates, times, and conditions rather than general descriptions
- Reference your monitoring data ("Our indoor TVOC reading reached X ppb at [time] when wind was from the southwest at Y mph")
- Ask for a complaint reference number and follow up in writing via email to create a documented record
Community Coordination
Individual complaints carry less weight than coordinated community reports. If neighbors are experiencing the same events simultaneously, coordinated complaints filed at the same time carry significantly more weight. Consider:
- Creating a neighborhood group chat to coordinate real-time reporting during events
- Sharing monitoring data with neighbors to help them document their own exposures
- Contacting local environmental justice organizations who can help amplify concerns
- Requesting a community meeting with the landfill operator — most are required to have a community liaison process
Maintaining Health Records
If you or family members have respiratory symptoms, keep a log that correlates symptom dates with documented exposure events. Share this log with your healthcare provider. Physicians can document in your medical record that respiratory symptoms correlate temporally with documented air quality events — which can be important if health claims are ever relevant.