Air testers going mobile

The city will start using municipal vehicles to test local air quality in the South Bronx as part of a pilot program that launched Tuesday.

Five parks and sanitation vehicles that serve the South Bronx will get mobile, solarpowered, air-quality sensors affixed to their roofs for a four-week trial period. Depending on the pilot's outcome, the tech may be installed on other cars in the city's fleet.

“New Yorkers' air quality shouldn't be determined by zip code,” Mayor de Blasio said. “We're piloting technology that can lead us to a greener, cleaner and safer city for all.”

The South Bronx has some of the poorest air quality in the city, according to public data. The Hunts Point and Mott Haven area sees higher levels of fine particulate matter outdoors than other neighborhoods, and has more estimated “health events” attributable to ozone exposure.

Those neighborhoods also have higher rates of child and adult asthma — and hospitalizations due to respiratory issues.

The new sensors are meant to help the city determine the cause of poor air quality in areas with the worst pollution so officials can implement policy solutions.

New York City already has air quality sensors around the five boroughs, but they stay in the same place.

The mobile sensors, developed by the Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and provided for free, will be able to collect hyper-local data at a lower cost. The “CityScanner” technology is based on sensors that use lasers to detect pollutants in the air.