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Bucket Brigade Introduction


Do you want to know how to find out what you are breathing and if there is a link between pollution and health problems?

The "Bucket Brigade" is a simple, but effective, tool that dozens of communities are using to find out for themselves what chemicals are in the air.  Armed with their own data and information about the health effects of chemicals, these communities are winning impressive reductions of pollution, safety improvements and increasing enforcement of environmental laws.

Photo of Bucket Device
The "Bucket Brigade" is named for a easy to use air sampling device housed inside a 5 gallon plastic bucket.  The "Bucket" was developed in Northern California in 1995 by an environmental engineering firm in order to simplify and reduce the costs of widely accepted methods used for testing toxic gases in the air. Denny Larson, formed the Global Community Monitor in 2002, helped to develop the buckets and has worked with many communities on establishing successful air testing programs.

The Global Community Monitor can help your community start a Bucket Brigade to find out what you are breathing and fight back for clean air.

Find out more about how GCM can help your community monitor and take action. 

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Find out what your air testing results mean

This site is being updated now due to various agencies changing or updating their standards and guidelines.

For EPA Region 6 guidelines for residential exposure click here.

For ATDSR screening levels click here. 

For Texas Effects Screening levels click here.


What the bucket can test for?

 

 New "particle bucket" tests for PM 10 and 2.5 as well as diesel emissions and heavy metals

 Find out about this exciting new addition to our community toolkit.  Contact us to find out how you can start your own particle sampling. West Berkeley PM Monitoring project.

New Monitoring Technologies for Communities

The Bucket Brigade project is leading the way to research the latest in new air monitoring technologies. Read more about our monitoring fairs and the latest equipment.

Real time continuous air monitoring for toxic gases from Argos Scientific, Inc:  www.argos-sci.com

To get the details on toxic gas monitors: Contact: Don Gamiles at Argos: dsgamiles@argos-sci.com  or 404-403-4709.

The Bucket Stops Here


The humble plastic bucket can be used as a toolbox, a planter, or a street-corner drum -- but it also has a higher calling: saving lives.
For the rest of the story, visit:
http://www.gristmagazine.com/maindish/nijhuis072303.asp

New Bucket Brigade Study:
Community Environmental Policing:
Assessing New Strategies of Public Participation in Environmental Regulation
Download the study Adobe pdf format


OAKLAND, CA: Student-produced documentary features West Oakland community
Two Bay Area high school students produced a 7 minute video documentary exposing the perils of living near CASS metal recycling facility in West Oakland.

PRINCE GEORGE, B.C.: 'Bucket Brigade' tests air in Prince George
Global Community Monitor is launching a new project in British Columbia. The residents of Prince George, B.C. formed an organization called People's Action Committee for Healthy Air (PACHA). PACHA will work with GCM to fight pollution in a city that "just plain stinks"

OAKLAND, CA: Scrap Metal Plant Sued for Illegal SF Bay Pollution
A troubled scrap metal/aluminum casting facility in West Oakland, Custom Alloy Scrap Sales (CASS) was sued today for massive violations of water pollution laws by a Bay Area Environmental Justice group, Global Community Monitor (GCM)

SOUTH AFRICA: Communities Launch Particulate Matter Testing Program Targeting Mines and Metals Facilities
For the first time, communities living in South Africa’s air pollution hotspots will be able to test the air for heavy metals and dust particles.

KENYA: Bucket Brigade Meets Obama's Grandma, National Training for Environmental Justice Communities Underway
Members of the Global Bucket Brigade Network traveled to the ancestral home of the Obama family

Healthy Schools Hero Award 2009 - Ruth Breech, Global Community Monitor!
Breech is motivated to "tell the untold story" of the people who suffer in silence in "fenceline" communities such as Addyston, Ohio, where her work help get children out of a toxic school.

Young environmentalists tackle West Oakland pollution: Neighbors will start air monitoring project
The machine and another like it will be situated around the school and other sites in the West Oakland community during the next month to gauge the amount and types of emissions coming from Custom Alloy and Scrap Sales (CASS), which makes aluminum parts from scrap metals.

Aamjiwnaang First Nation: Imperial Oil darkens sky - second accident this week!
Ada Lockridge, a member of the Aamjiwnaang environment committee, said she was leaving an environmental meeting on the reserve when she noticed the clouds of smoke. "You can see the yellow crap in the sky," she said. "It's coming right at Aamjiwnaang.

“Hopewell Smell” Harmful to Human Health - Southern Virginia Community Air Testing Program Finds Results Alarming
Hopewell’s air has long been known to residents and down-winders as having a characteristic ‘smell’ that is unpleasant, but until recently, no one knew what hazards it might contain.

Young students often most vulnerable to toxic air:"That's why monitoring is so important," says Ruth Breech, program director for Global Community Monitor
Proximity to industries — and the exposures to toxic chemicals that often go with it — can portend unique dangers for young children.

The Smokestack Effect: Toxic Air and America's Schools: USA TODAY used an EPA model to track the path of industrial pollution and mapped the locations of almost 128,000 schools to determine the levels of toxic chemicals outside.
The potential problems that emerged were widespread, insidious and largely unaddressed.

Claymont,DE: First results of Dust Study point to toxic releases from Evraz Claymont Steel: High levels of Lead and Manganese Concern Expert
"Levels of lead and manganese in air samples were substantially higher during a half-month period when winds carried air pollutant emissions from the Claymont Steel facility into these residential locations."

STEEL DUST: Claymont residents prepare to monitor air pollution.
The rooftops of some homes in Claymont will soon become temporary science labs because of a community air pollution monitoring project starting this weekend.

Sierra Club will test Hopewell air quality
The bucket brigade is coming to the city, but there’s no fire. Specially-outfitted buckets will collect air quality samples as part of a new study on how Hopewell’s industry affects the air.

Preliminary West Oakland Air Testing Results - JOIN THE COMMUNITY MONITOR TEAM!
The Global Community Monitor (GCM), Students of McCylmond’s High School and the Rose Foundation have been conducting an investigation of pollution in West Oakland. GCM is organizing a Community Monitoring Action Team to conduct more air tests at homes and businesses in the area. We need your help to volunteer to be trained and participate in a variety of monitoring activities.

Media Reports of Canada Chemical Valley Bucket Brigade- Extensive National Coverage!
Aamjiwnaang's environmental committee is calling for stronger industry standards in the wake of new test results showing "alarming" levels of toxic chemicals in the air.

Aamjiwnaang Bucket Brigade discovers alarming levels of toxic chemicals in Sarnia - Results reveal lack of public health standards for toxic air pollution in Canada
SARNIA, ONTARIO, CANADA – Bucket Brigade volunteers from the Aamjiwnaang First Nation have discovered alarming levels of toxic chemicals in the air adjacent to their reserve near Sarnia, Ontario.

Chennai's Poison Air: Real Time Monitor Tells Toxic Truth!
Global Community Monitor, India Community Environmental Monitor and Argos Scientific have brought a real time air monitor to Chennai, the so-called "IT" Capitol of the world. But as this TV news story reveals, pollution monitoring and control are still in the stone age.

Hinkley tests air to challenge composting plant
“We want to be able to prove that our air here is clean before this thing comes in so we can fight it,” Diaz said. He said that the group is concerned that the regional air board does not test the air directly in Hinkley, instead using a monitoring station in Barstow.

Trailer in West Berkeley to monitor the air near troubled steel foundry
Global Community Monitor, called the air district's trailer a win for the community.``It's a huge victory that the trailer is up, and the community, for the first time, will get an idea of what they are breathing and find out where it's coming from.''

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