Good News About Successfully Protecting Kids!

The Background

Since 2017, our partner organization The Pollution Detectives has been loaning meters at no cost to survey North Carolina classrooms. We've tested over 850 locations and discovered that half had indoor air quality issues lowering learning by at least one letter grade.

The Challenge We Faced

Many people felt intimidated by the process of working through school system management layers, facilities teams, and school boards. They worried it would be too time-consuming with uncertain returns.

Our Solution

We made our library of tools available to teachers and community leaders for use in their own homes. Our hope was to help them:

• Get comfortable with the meters
• See how invisible pollution impacts their loved ones
• Realize how easy and impactful it is
• Feel confident to expand surveying efforts

On October 26, 2025, we announced this expansion in The Optimistic Futurist newsletter to 18,000 North Carolina educational thought leaders.

The Amazing Results!

The response exceeded our expectations! Parents and grandparents are:

• Requesting more meters than ever before
• Reaching out for guidance when results are concerning
• Asking for additional meters to test family members' homes
• Taking action to protect their loved ones

What We're Doing Next

We're redesigning our website and paperwork to make it even easier and faster for you to borrow these tools for home use and other environments where kids spend time.

You Are Not Powerless

As mothers, fathers, and grandparents, you can protect your loved ones at no cost. All you have to do is borrow these scientifically validated meters and plug them in.

It will be an act of love.

What These Tools Can Help You Detect:

✓ Indoor air quality issues ✓ Radon gas levels

✓ Asthma triggers ✓ Lead in drinking water

✓ Factors affecting alertness ✓ Environmental health risks

An Expert Endorsement

Indoor air systems crucial to curbing spread of viruses, aerosol researchers say | 60 Minutes

Joseph G. Allen, Professor of Exposure Assessment Science

Harvard University

T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Reached that Age?

How You and Your Community Can Benefit from

the "Required Minimum Distribution"

If you or your parents have passed the milestone of age 73 and maintain a retirement account, you are probably aware of the mixed blessing known as the Required Minimum Distribution. At age 73, and every year thereafter, you are required to take a compulsory withdrawal of funds from your (until now) tax free retirement account. The amount increases your federal taxes owed for that year.

There is, however, a neat opportunity to avoid paying those taxes and do good at the same time: you can make what the Internal Revenue Service calls a "Qualified Charitable Distribution."

If you own a traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE IRAs, or 401(k, 403(b), 457(b), profit-sharing, or other defined contribution plan, you can instruct your account Trustee to donate directly to a specific charity, such as including a public school. When you do so, these dollars are excluded from taxable income on your tax return.

Our partner organization, The Pollution Detectives, Inc., is a nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization that meets the criteria for a qualified charity under this rule. Its mission—to make the invisible visible—emphasizes the impact on childhood learning of environmental conditions that cannot be readily perceived by human senses. For no charge, TPD lends special detection tools to students, teachers, school systems, community organizations, and residents to survey the indoors for air pollutants, mold, and radon. To those who borrow these devices, TPD provides reports, interpretive guidance, and advice about ways to lower the presence of undesirable substances after they are identified.

The Pollution Detectives, Inc.’s work at more than 850 locations has enabled schools throughout North Carolina to provide a better learning environment for students.

If you value The Pollution Detectives, Inc.’s work in the community, please ask your Trustee to make a Qualified Charitable Distribution to:

Nova Credit Union Routing Number: 253075031

Savings Account Number: 1000001384502

Highlights from...

Our Lending Library

Indoor Air Quality Monitors

Poor indoor air quality can have a surprisingly wide range of health effects, such as asthma and allergies, infectious disease, headaches, fatigue and dizziness. One little-known but especially undesirable health effect comes from a room that feels too “stuffy.”  In these conditions, your mental abilities are lessened and learning is slowed.

Many of our monitors provide easy-to-read results that can be viewed in real time on your cell phone by downloading a free app. The display indicates whether a component of air, such as CO2, particulate matter, or volatile organic compounds, falls within a healthy range. And when it does not, the app can notify you about the need to adjust environmental conditions in which the monitor is located.

Breathing clean air indoors isn’t just a comfort—

it’s essential to overall well-being.

Learn more

Borrow Indoor Air Monitors