On April 22, 2019, U.S. Embassy Tashkent hosted an Earth Day event on air quality. The program included a brief presentation from air quality expert Dr. Anondo Mukherjee, an air quality scientist based in California, followed by a demonstration of the Embassy’s air quality monitor. The monitor, which was installed in May 2018, tracks hourly air quality in Tashkent and uploads all data to the publicly- available website, airnow.gov. Dr. Mukherjee discussed the data produced by the air quality monitor and also offered some thoughts on mitigating and adapting to poor air quality. Members of the Uzbek Hydro-Meteorological Service (UzHydromet), the State Committee on Ecology and Environmental Protection (SCEEP), the Ministry of Health (MOH), and the Ecological Movement Party in Parliament attended the event, along with representatives from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Central Asia Regional Environment Center (CAREC), and alumni of the Embassy’s Tech Women program. The event brought together a number of different groups to discuss air quality, opening the doors to future communication and collaboration in this field. Charge d’Affaires Alan Melzter noted that “the United States is working with countries all over the world to raise awareness of the costs of air pollution’s social, economic and environmental impacts.”
