This spring and summer, with funding from an EPA Environmental Justice grant and the Clean Air for All campaign, Clean Air Methow has distributed 250 box fan filters through partners to households who are unable to afford a filter. The distribution program was created to protect public health by making clean indoor air more accessible. It also provides an opportunity for outreach on how to reduce unnecessary smoke generated through activities such as outdoor burning. Box fan kits are shown to be as effective as HEPA air purifiers at a fraction of the price. When doors and windows are properly shut, the kits are designed to significantly reduce PM2.5 in indoor settings.

Family Health, Confluence Health, The Okanogan County Community Action Council and Room One all helped to distribute box fans this year. Anyone could receive a box fan filter but individuals and households who were most vulnerable to wildfire smoke were prioritized: people with asthma and other respiratory diseases, people with cardiovascular diseases, children, pregnant women, older adults, people of low socio-economic-status, and outdoor agricultural workers and their families.

This summer’s distribution has helped to get box fan filters into the hands of households across Okanogan County who are in need of clean air. However, we estimate there are at least 4,000 more households and families in the Methow Valley and across Okanogan County who still do not have the ability to clean their air in the event of a smoke event.

A box fan kit consists of a fan, two filters, assembly instructions and a bungee cord, and costs only $40. Our partners tell us they could immediately distribute over two hundred of them to waiting pregnant mothers, households with infants, agricultural worker families, and seniors utilizing food bank services.  Please consider donating to Clean Air Methow’s Clean Air for All Campaign to ensure ALL homes can be safe refuge from smoke.