TracMyAir Web Application for Researchers
TrackMyAir Web Application
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About the TracMyAir Web App
What is TracMyAir?
The TracMyAir is a web application that predicts near real-time individual air pollution exposure and dose. The TracMyAir air pollutants include fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone. The TracMyAir app is a research app for epidemiologic and field studies of air pollution. The primary users for the app are scientists conducting these studies.
TracMyAir runs two models: EPA’s Exposure Model for Individuals (EMI) and Microenvironment Tracker (MicroTrac). These models account for time spent in different indoor microenvironments (e.g., home, work, in-vehicles) and outdoors. Additionally, they consider the potentially lower amount of outdoor air pollution present indoors, which depends on daily weather conditions, building characteristics, and type of air pollutant (i.e., PM2.5, ozone).
When was TracMyAir first launched?
Developers completed a prototype in 2019. EPA evaluated TracMyAir using data from pilot field studies in central North Carolina, and it is being applied for multiple air pollution epidemiologic studies.
How does TracMyAir predict near real-time individual air pollution exposure and dose?
TracMyAir uses a combination of outdoor air pollution measurements from local monitors (e.g., EPA’s AirNow data system) and local weather based on the user’s location; and other data provided by the user. Some of the following types of input data provided by the user include:
- Information about your time spent in different indoor and outdoor environments in the past 24 hours.
- Characteristics of your home like the floor area, building age, number of open windows, and indoor temperatures.
- How physically active you’ve been in the past 24 hours.
- Information about you: age, sex, weight, and height.
For research studies, the user can save all input and output data to a file, which can then be provided to the study coordinator for subsequent analysis (e.g., epidemiologic analysis).
Note that all input and output data, including user-provided information, is not stored and will be deleted after the user closes the app.
How do I get TracMyAir?
TracMyAir is a web application available via your web browser at this link: TracMyAir
How to use the TracMyAir Web App
How do I use TracMyAir?
Click this link to open the web app in your web browser: TracMyAir
Upon first opening web app, the user needs to enter information in four sections: “About Me”, “About My Home”, “About My Day”, and “About My Location”.
- In the “About Me” section, the user provides information about body characteristics (sex, age, weight, height). This information is optional and used to calculate personal inhaled dose.
- In the “About My Home” section, the user provides information on home characteristics (e.g., floor area, year built, number of floors, type of house, wind sheltering of house), and home operating conditions (e.g., indoor temperature, open windows and doors, operation of window fans and air cleaners).
- In the “About My Day” section, the user enters the amount of time spent in various locations (e.g., inside vehicles, outdoors, indoors not at home, indoors at home) during the past 24 hours, and the physical activity level in each location (e.g., light, moderate, vigorous, sedentary).
- In the “About My Location” section, the user enters their location. This location is used by TracMyAir to automatically obtain air pollution and weather data from the nearest outdoor PM2.5 and ozone monitors and weather stations. The user can provide their location using either: 1) the user’s computer auto-determined location feature, 2) entering a street address, or 3) adding a marker on a displayed map.
To calculate air pollution exposure, the user selects “Estimate My Exposure”. The results will be displayed as pie charts for each microenvironment (i.e., outdoors, indoors at home, indoors not at home, inside vehicles) for ozone and PM2.5, and as time series of exposure changes for the six previous days relative to the current day’s exposure. To download the results to a file (e.g., for research studies), the user selects “Download Results”.
How do I save the results from TracMyAir?
TracMyAir results are displayed as pie charts and time series bar charts. Before closing the app, the user can save the input and output data to a user-specified file by clicking on the “Download Results” button in “My Exposure” section. The “.csv” file contains daily (24-h average) results for a 7-day period (current day + 6-day lag).
The results include various exposure metrics (e.g., PM2.5 and ozone exposure and dose per body surface area; outdoor PM2.5 and outdoor ozone concentrations; outdoor temperature, wind speed, and humidity; home air exchange rate; home PM2.5 and ozone infiltration factor; home indoor PM2.5 and ozone level; personal PM2.5 and ozone exposure factor). After the user closes the app, all input and output data not saved to a file is deleted. For research studies, the output data can then be provided to a research study coordinator for subsequent analysis (e.g., epidemiologic analysis).
Does TracMyAir work on tablets?
TracMyAir is a web application that can be run on desktop computer, smartphones, and tablets that have a web browser with JavaScript enabled. The app is optimized for desktop web browser viewing so there may be some inconsistencies with the TracMyAir display on smartphones and tablet. If you notice any specific errors with the app on your device, please contact us.
What geographic region does TracMyAir represent?
The app can be used to determined air pollution exposures in the 48 contiguous states of the U.S.
Will personal information be taken and where does the data go?
The TracMyAir web app does not require identifiable information such as names, email addresses, phone numbers, mobile device identifiers, etc. The web app does not store any information on a server, and all the user entries (e.g., location, home characteristics, activity) are erased after the user closes the app. For research studies, the user can download and save the results to a user-specified text file (which includes the location information) before closing the web app. This text file can then be provided to a study coordinator for subsequent analysis (e.g., epidemiologic analysis). It is the user’s responsibility to safeguard the downloaded text file.
I am having trouble with the web app, what can I do?
The web app is a computer code that, in near real-time, acquires data from multiple external databases (e.g., outdoor PM2.5 and ozone measurements, airport weather observations). Please contact us if you have trouble using TracMyAir.
Published Research
Breen MS, Seppanen C, Isakov V, Arunachalam S, Breen M, Samet J, Tong H. Development of TracMyAir Smartphone Application for Modeling Exposures to Ambient PM2.5 and Ozone. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019 doi:10.3390/ijerph16183468.
Breen MS, Long T, Schultz B, Williams R, Richmond-Bryant J, Breen M, Langstaff J, Devlin R, Schneider A, Burke J, Batterman S, Meng Q. Air Pollution Exposure Model for Individuals (EMI) in Health Studies: Evaluation for Ambient PM2.5 in Central North Carolina. Environ Sci Technol. 2015 49:14184-14194.