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West-siders: Join us and share your experiences with air quality

Reaching for Air will tell the stories of residents in an interactive air quality map

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) A plane flies into the Salt Lake International Airport as inversion conditions settle into the valley diminishing the air quality, on Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) A plane flies into the Salt Lake International Airport as inversion conditions settle into the valley diminishing the air quality, on Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022.

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Do you live on the west side of the Salt Lake Valley and has bad air quality affected your life? The Salt Lake Tribune and KUER want to hear from you.

Please join us for a listening session on Saturday, Jan. 28 at Mestizo Coffeehouse at 631 North Temple, Salt Lake City anytime from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

About 10 minutes of your time will help with the creation of a first-ever interactive air quality map of the Salt Lake Valley, featuring personal audio stories told by residents for our Reaching For Air project.

Salt Lake County recently received an F when graded for high ozone days by the American Lung Association, and air quality monitors frequently show the west side experiencing some of the worst hot spots.

There are many air quality maps — but none of them tells the story of those who live in the areas most affected by pollution. This is the first of many sessions The Tribune and KUER intend to host. We are also planning on visiting other cities in the near future.

If you can’t attend but would like to participate, please fill out this short survey and we will reach out to you.

Alixel Cabrera is a Report for America corps member and writes about the status of communities on the west side of the Salt Lake Valley for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.

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