The Dictatorship
Air quality in U.S. cities reaches hazardous levels as Canadian wildfires burn
Heavy, pungent wildfiresmoke darkened skies in the U.S. on Friday from the Great Lakes to parts of the East Coast, reducing visibility and prompting warnings that breathing the air outside could be dangerous.
Officials in many cities this week urged residents to stay inside or wear masks outside as air quality reached unhealthy to hazardous levels, meaning it’s unhealthy for anyone, regardless of health conditions. The smoke is coming from firesthat are burning primarily in Canadabut also in northern Minnesota. A lingering high pressure system has trapped the smoke close to the ground, said Steven Freitag, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Detroit.
On Friday, meteorologists issued air quality warnings in Detroit, Chicago and Washington, D.C., where a hazy sky hovered over the city and suburbs, bringing a strong, acrid smell of smoke. According to monitoring site IQAirWashington had the third-worst air quality of major cities around the world at about sunrise on Friday, behind Detroit and Chicago. The top five also included Toronto and New York City.
“It’s scary,” Omar Mitchell, 50, said Thursday as he looked to the sky while walking to his restaurant in Detroit, wearing a mask. “You don’t know necessarily what the side effects may be. That’s days or months later.”
Microscopic particles can lodge deep in the lungs and enter the bloodstream, leading to heart and lung problems and contributing to other long-term health issues.
Michigan and much of Minnesota were under a hazardous air qualityalert. In the Chicago area, air quality ranged from very unhealthy to hazardous.
National Weather Service meteorologist Jake Petr said Thursday that even if winds from the northwest clear skies soon, as expected, the smoky air could keep returning until the fires are out. That could take months, until it snows in Canada and northern Minnesota, officials have said.
Bill Ostrowski, 76, wore a mask as he walked through downtown Chicago on Thursday, where wildfire smoke shrouded skyscrapers. “It stinks. It’s not a good sign when you wake up in the morning and you can smell the air,” he said.
In St. Paul, Minnesota, the sky was “glowing yellow,” said Brent Williams, head of the soil, water and climate department at the University of Minnesota. The area “could be looking at weeks to months of continued smoke and flare-ups off and on as the winds blow in different directions,” he said Thursday.
A study published this year found that long-term exposure to tiny particles from wildfire smoke contributed to an average of 24,100 deaths a year in the lower 48 states. Long-term exposure can make existing health problems worse and lead to a range of chronic and deadly issues, including respiratory illness, cardiovascular and neurological diseases, and premature death.