The State Council suspends staff and families who report air quality levels to rely on overseas

State Council staff were ordered by a department to stop publishing air quality monitoring data within the country by a departmental directive.

CBS News reviewed a March 4 message sent to staff that said, “There is currently no date for available data.” Embassy staff and their families rely on reports to remind them Poor air quality sky.

“I’m shocked by the news,” said a current staff member, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of work, saying the decision didn’t make much sense because the existing infrastructure to monitor air quality was established and operated. Another department employee said: “I have no purpose to close the data, it doesn’t make any sense.”

An air quality monitor is running, but efforts to transmit air pollution data from embassies and consulates no longer occur “due to funding restrictions that resulted in the department shutting down the underlying network.” When asked about the cost of operating the program, the State Council did not provide an answer.

Rick Duke said: “The cost of maintaining these systems is insignificant.climate The Trump administration’s ideology. “These monitors are even related to climate, why should we take health information from embassy staff and the public?” Duke said.

Air monitoring at the U.S. embassy began in 2008 when a monitor was placed in the embassy in Beijing, China. Results are posted on Twitter every hour, notified to the public Air pollution levels In the city. The account called Airbeijing tweeted on Twitter in 2010, when the air on November 11 was “crazy bad” when the machine dangerously registered a dangerous high level Air pollution.

The purpose of monitoring was to inform U.S. citizens living in the region about the air condition of the city, but the Chinese public quickly got the information and began asking their administration to address the toxic pollution that local officials often downplayed.

The State Department has expanded air surveillance at other embassies around the world, installing 78 monitors elsewhere, and providing data on airnow.gov. A 2022 scientific study found that the embassy program was very successful in reducing air pollutants, “striking a significant drop in the risk of premature mortality for more than 300 million people living in U.S. embassy monitors.”

However, since the program is terminated, the web page of the embassy data will only generate an error message. Beijing’s last read 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 tasks, especially for those who have to move entire families and children to places where air is unhealthy, or where local governments monitor air unreliable or non-existent.

“It is unethical to rob the information the employees need for children,” said one current employee.

A State Department spokesman told CBS News in a statement that the statement continues to collect air data and “will be provided when there is a safe and reliable way to transmit it.” They said the department is “evaluating other transmission options.”

The spokesperson also said that air quality monitoring equipment “is just one of many tools the department uses to ensure the health and safety of employees.”

When CBS News asked staff about other tools, they said they didn’t know any tools and didn’t know how to access information.