State Department suspends reporting air quality levels staff and families relied on overseas

State Department staff were taken aback this week by a department directive instructing embassies and consulates to stop publishing air quality monitoring data. 

CBS News has reviewed the message that was sent to staff on March 4, which says “currently there is no anticipated date for real-time data to be available.” Embassy staff and their families relied on the reports to alert them to poor air quality days.

“I was shocked by the announcement,” said a current staffer, who asked to remain anonymous due to concerns about their job, and who said the decision doesn’t make much sense as the existing infrastructure to monitor air quality is already in place and operational. “I don’t see any purpose in turning off this data, it doesn’t make any sense,” said another department employee.

A State Department spokesman told CBS News in a statement that the air quality monitors are running, but the effort to transmit air pollution data from embassies and consulates is no longer happening “due to funding constraints that have caused the Department to turn off the underlying network.” When asked what it costs to operate the program, the State Department did not provide an answer.

“The cost to maintain these systems is trivial,” said Rick Duke, who served as the deputy special envoy for climate at the State Department until January and believes this isn’t about saving money as much as it’s driven by misplaced anti-climate ideology in the Trump administration. “These monitors aren’t even about climate,” said Duke, “Why take away health information from embassy staff and the public?”

Air monitoring at U.S. embassies began informally in 2008 when a single monitor was placed at the embassy in Beijing, China. The results were posted hourly on Twitter, informing the public about levels of air pollution in the city. The account called AirBeijing became internet-famous in 2010 when it tweeted that the air on Nov. 11 was “Crazy Bad” when the machine registered dangerously high levels of air pollution.

The purpose behind the monitoring was to inform U.S. citizens living in the region about the state of the city’s air, but the Chinese public quickly picked up the information and began demanding their government address the toxic pollution that local officials often downplayed.

The State Department expanded air monitoring at other embassies around the world, installing 78 monitors elsewhere, and made the data available on AirNow.gov. A 2022 scientific study found that the embassy program was highly successful in reducing air pollutants, “resulting in substantial decreases in the premature mortality risk faced by the over 300 million people living in cities home to a US embassy monitor.” 

But now that the program is terminated, the webpage for embassy data only produces an error message. The last available reading in Beijing was posted on March 4, the day the agency stopped transmitting data.

Current State Department staff told CBS News that access to air quality data is key when weighing overseas assignments, especially for those who must move their entire family and children to places with unhealthy air, or in locations where air monitoring by local governments is unreliable or non-existent. 

“Robbing employees of the information they need for the health decisions of their children is immoral,” said a current staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. 

A State Department spokesperson told CBS News in a statement that the air data continues to be collected and “will be made available when there is a secure and reliable way to transmit it.” They said the department is “evaluating other transmission options.” 

The spokesperson also said the air quality monitoring equipment “is only one of a number of tools the Department uses to ensure the health and safety of our staff.” 

When CBS News asked staffers about the other tools, they said they were not aware of any and did not know how else to access the information.