The Pollution Reporter App

Developed by The Land and the Refinery, this app uses publicly available data to connect specific refineries and facilities with their pollution emissions, and then connects those pollutants with known health effects and symptoms based on published peer-reviewed medical literatures, creating an alternative database of chemical harms attached to the facilities most reponsible. The app focuses on Ontario’s Chemical Valley, and is guided by Aamjiwnaang community researchers and members. The app gathers and translates diverse technical information into an accessible form so that people can more easily link health issues to facility activities. The app is built for community users and is searchable by facility, symptom, and pollutant so that users will have an accessible database of chemical pollutants and their effects that we hope will be useful for the community to advocate for the changes they want. The app also has a reporting function that allows community members to report spills, leaks, flares and other pollution events to the Ontario Ministry of Environment using their phones and email. The app includes all facilities in Chemical Valley. We hope the app will be useful to any frontline community in Canada. This app is built by the EDJ team in with assistance from Reflector Digital. Pollution Reporter is downloadable for free on phones and tablets in both Google Play Store and the App Store.

The Pollution Reporter App connects pollution data with health effects, empowering community members in Ontario’s Chemical Valley to advocate for environmental health.• Tech Literacy & Accessibility: The app promotes tech literacy within affected communities, making pollution data accessible and actionable for local advocacy.• Reducing Harm in New Media: By offering transparency around pollutants and health, the app reduces harm by equipping communities with information to address environmental injustices.• Data & Knowledge Stewardship: The app serves as a public repository, stewarding community health data in a way that emphasizes local ownership and utility.