Even Something as Atmospheric as Air Pollution can be Managed. A California Company has the Data to Prove It

Atmo, transforming indoor and outdoor air quality data into clear, actionable decisions, has released its first year-long study of air quality in New York City. The timing is pointed: in February 2026, New York City was briefly ranked among the most polluted cities in the world, after an air quality alert blanketed the metro area amid high particulate levels. But even on ordinary days, individual exposure varies dramatically depending on where a person walks, commutes, and cooks.

Making Air Quality Visible and Actionable.

Air pollution has long been treated as an unavoidable part of urban life, but ATMO is working to give individuals greater visibility into the air they breathe. The San Francisco-based company develops portable air quality monitoring devices designed to help users measure and respond to environmental conditions in real time.

Its latest device, Atmotube PRO 2, incorporates Swiss-made sensors from Sensirion and is based on technology that has been evaluated by researchers from institutions including Johns Hopkins University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Southern California. The platform aims to provide individuals with data that can help them better understand and manage their exposure to air pollution.

Mapping Real-World Air Pollution Exposure.

ATMO recently published a year-long analysis of air quality across New York City, highlighting how pollution exposure can vary significantly based on daily routines, travel patterns, and indoor environments. The study comes amid growing attention to air quality after the city experienced periods of elevated pollution levels in early 2026.

Drawing on more than 4.1 million anonymized PM2.5 measurements collected from opt-in Atmotube PRO users throughout 2025, the dataset provides a detailed view of how individuals experience air pollution in real-world settings. The findings focus on fine particulate matter (PM2.5), a pollutant associated with serious health risks and linked to millions of deaths globally each year.

Short Pollution Spikes Drive Much of Daily Exposure.

One of the study’s key findings is that roughly half of a person's daily PM2.5 exposure occurs during just 43 minutes of the day, about 3% of waking hours. During these brief pollution spikes, readings from personal monitoring devices were as much as 15 times higher than levels reported by the nearest fixed air-quality station.

The data also highlight the limitations of citywide monitoring networks in capturing hyperlocal exposure. While New York City's air-quality system relies on a small number of fixed monitoring stations to represent conditions across millions of residents, pollution levels can vary dramatically over short distances. For example, users in Astoria and Queens Village, both linked to the same nearby monitoring station, experienced substantially different peak pollution levels, illustrating how neighborhood-level and street-level conditions can diverge significantly from official averages.

Small Behavioral Changes Can Significantly Reduce Exposure.

According to Vera Kozyr, the concentration of pollution exposure into a small number of high-impact moments creates opportunities for meaningful risk reduction. By identifying and avoiding these short periods of elevated exposure, individuals may be able to substantially lower their overall intake of harmful particulate matter.

Examples include improving ventilation while cooking, selecting routes with cleaner air during outdoor exercise, or making adjustments to indoor airflow and living environments based on real-time air quality data.