Ten in Two: Langston Verdin, MKE Fresh Air Collective
Ten in Two is a new series from WEHN. We engage with people across Wisconsin, share stories about their activism, what inspires them, and their hopes for how their work will change the public health landscape in Wisconsin. We ask ten questions and their answers will take 2-ish minutes to read.
We hope their words will spark ideas, generate hope, and inspire you to take action on climate change.
1 . Name and personal tagline
Langston Verdin. I care about people. I care about our community. It’s not about me, it’s about the collective.
2. The Wisconsin community you call home and why
Living in a capitalist society, everyone is a “do for oneself.” But then you have pockets of real community. Riverwest is a great example of that.
My wife and I have a 14-year-old daughter, 9-year old son, and a 15-month old daughter. Riverwest is a community to raise a family in, because it teaches appreciation of what a community should feel like. It’s such a diverse community of folks, and it’s something I enjoy and that I want my kids to experience as well.
3. Tell us about your personal and work history and how you came to form the MKE Fresh Air Collective
I worked at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin for 17 years in many different programs, eventually becoming Director of Strategic Partnerships with the Asthma Coalition. I had access to data that showed asthma hotspots in the City of Milwaukee—the northwest and the near south side. But I wasn’t seeing a lot of the usual causal factors, especially on the northwest side.
I started thinking about neighborhood level air quality in 2019, around the same time as the Australian bush fires in 2019. An online map showed air quality scores in 5 minute intervals in Australia. I scrolled to Milwaukee on that same map and we didn’t have any real time monitors (DNR data was not displayed on the maps). So I reached out to IQAir, and said, “hey, I’ve got this issue in Milwaukee and I think you all can help me. They donated 4 air monitors to start deploying throughout Milwaukee.
The first air quality monitor I set up was on my own house when I was living in Washington Heights. Now 5,000 people follow it and receive notifications on their app.
5. What have you learned about the problem of air quality and how to fix it?
I realized while working on the asthma team at Children’s Hospital that there are a lot of issues that healthcare is not going to solve. Waiting for a kid to show up at the emergency room is not going to fix the problem. We need to invest in community based solutions.
6. Who are your partners in this work?
IQAir is a fantastic partner. They’ve donated probably $8000 worth of equipment.
Folks from the National Environmental Defense Fund, Wisconsin Clean Economy Coalition, and the Energy Foundation want to find ways to support the work.
I’m a Community Collaborator for the NASA Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team - Wisconsin. It’s exciting. They just deployed a new satellite that is going to allow us to look at air quality at the block by block level in near real time. One day, I won’t need air monitors deployed everywhere because we’ve got a satellite that can tell us the same information.
7. What is the most important thing you want people to know about the MKE Fresh Air Collective?
This information is there for you. All of our data is public. All of the monitors are public. You can download the IQAir app, follow the air monitor nearest you, and you will get real-time notifications of your air quality. Not only that, when you click on the link it tells you what to do. If your air is worsening, and you have respiratory sensitivities, it’s going to tell you to go inside, close your windows, or wear a mask if you have to be outside. It will also tell you when the air quality is getting better.
The more people that use the app, the more we can keep our communities safe in real time. There’s a lot of kids with asthma in Milwaukee. I was shocked when some school staff told me, “probably about 85% of our kids have asthma.” When possible, I place air quality monitors close to schools, then let them know they can use this resource. I placed one across the street from 53rd Street School on the northwest side, and I don’t know if they use it, but I hope they do!
We are constantly looking for homeowners and business owners who are interested in hosting an air monitor. I am targeting black and brown communities in Milwaukee because of the historic disparities, but I’ll have a conversation with anybody who wants to host one. You need two things:
WIFI
An outdoor outlet
8. Where do you draw inspiration from in your work?
My kids. My family. I have a daughter with asthma. It’s well controlled and we want to keep it that way.
I talk to folks in the community and when they tell me. “I have 7 kids with asthma,” or, “I have grandkids who would benefit from this,” that keeps me going. That means when one of my air monitors goes offline, I check on it right away, because folks might need it.
9. What impact do you hope to have?
It’s the long term change I’m after. I want to get in front of the problem. I hope to one day compare the data we are collecting to Emergency Department usage for asthma in our target communities, then research whether air quality is a factor. If we see a correlation, we can use that information to advocate for policy change at the city, state, and federal level.
We might advocate for things like electrifying government fleets, or incentivizing electric vehicles for the broader population, making streets more accessible for people who walk or bike, and getting carbon-emitting vehicles off the road. These solutions are especially needed in communities that are disproportionately burdened by the impacts of poor air quality.
10. If you could change one thing in our healthcare system to mitigate the impacts of climate change on public health, what would it be and why?
Invest in community based resources. Only recently have most of the health systems begun investing in community health workers. The problem is funding. The workers aren’t paid well, because the services aren’t reimbursable through Medicaid or other means. Some systems have found a way to get some reimbursement from local insurance companies, but it’s still not enough.
Even better, pull money from hospitals and government and invest it in the people and organizations already doing on-the-ground work, like Community Health Worker programs, or the MKE Fresh Air Collective. We need to support each other. If your funder isn’t funding Walnut Way, ask them why not? Give them $100K and they will be able to do so much more than a lot of our bigger organizations could.
For more information about hosting an air quality monitor at your home or business, contact Langston at langston@mkefreshair.com.