Kittitas County distributes hundreds of air purifiers, expands outreach to seniors and upper county during wildfire season

Kittitas County Public Health staff detailed a multi-year indoor air quality outreach effort Sept. 18 that has distributed air purifiers, DIY box-fan filtration units and PurpleAir monitors to residents, with a focus on older adults and upper-county communities during wildfire smoke events. Rebecca Moon, health promotion specialist, said the county began formal attention to air-quality concerns after the 2012 community health assessment and has partnered with the Washington State Department of Health and local organizations on pilot programs and giveaways. Moon described a 2021 pilot that supplied portable air cleaners to high-risk households and used PurpleAir monitors inside and outside recipients' homes to compare real-time readings. That pilot was repeated in 2022 and expanded in 2023. In 2024–2025 the department again provided purifiers: an initial allocation of 100 units, a later allotment of 94, 20 additional machines from a neighboring county, and 24 DIY box-fan filters this year. Moon reported that since 2021 the county has distributed a total of 572 air purifiers and DIY units. "The neat thing about the PurpleAir monitors is that it's a live read," Moon said, explaining the devices provide near-real-time particulate-matter measurements that can show local smoke conditions faster than hourly public indices. Moon said staff targeted outreach to upper-county communities and older adults, and coordinated with partners such as HopeSource, local fire districts, the Cascade Prevention Coalition and care coordinators to reach residents who could not travel to distribution events. Staff also used community events, senior nutrition lunches and coordinated partner deliveries to ensure access for people lacking transportation. Moon emphasized the public-health rationale: fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from wildfire smoke and other sources can enter the bloodstream and cause respiratory and cardiovascular symptoms, with higher risk for children, older adults, pregnant people and people with chronic disease. The department intends to continue targeted outreach and use partnerships to reach vulnerable residents in future smoke events.