http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/06/08/upshot/new-york-city-smoke.html [click thru for the chart] and https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a44120833/wildfire-smoke-brings-dangerous-particulate-matter/ and

Just How Bad Was the Pollution in New York?

By Aatish Bhatia, Josh Katz and Margot Sanger-KatzJune 8, 2023

This omitted chart is the meat of this story. You will need to click thru with the URL above to see it.

Source: Provisional data from the New York City Community Air Survey and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Curves show hourly concentrations of PM2.5 particles, measured in micrograms per cubic meter, for seven N.Y.C. locations, as of 4 p.m. on Thursday. Records reflect the Environmental Protection Agency’s highest daily average PM2.5 concentration for a given city from 1999 to 2023.

The air in New York City on Wednesday wasn’t just bad by the city’s standards. It was historically bad, even compared with places around the world that generally experience much more air pollution.

The chart above shows the concentration of a particularly dangerous kind of air pollution according to provisional data measured by the New York City Community Air Survey and the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation from a network of sensors around the city.

Those sensors measured levels of particles 2.5 microns in diameter or smaller, brought by wind from wildfires in Canada. Wednesday’s daily average was the highest since recording in New York began in 1999. (The second-highest level was on Tuesday.) Wednesday’s level of pollution was also higher than the worst daily average record in San Francisco — on Nov. 16, 2018, when wildfires were blazing in Northern California — and it approached average pollution levels recorded in Portland, Ore., on Sept. 13, 2020, during the worst of its pollution from nearby wildfires.

The small particles measured by the sensors — each about a 30th as wide as a human hair — are dangerous to human health because they are tiny enough to penetrate into the lungs and bloodstream. The Environmental Protection Agency closely tracks pollution of this type from smokestacks and vehicles.

[another fascinating chart that you need to see to understand]

Thirty-five micrograms of the particles per cubic meter of air is considered a safe average level in the air for one day, according to the agency. Wednesday’s average level in seven stations across the city was 377, nearly 11 times as much as that threshold.

Wednesday’s pollution, of course, was not caused by a power plant or vehicles, but by major wildfires in Canada, mostly in Quebec. Fires of this magnitude are unusual in the eastern part of North America, said Eric James, a research associate at the University of Colorado, who works on the model used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to predict the movement of smoke from wildfires. The East Coast tends to have more rain in the summer than the western half of the continent, where wildfires are so common that they have a season. An unusual weather pattern pushing the pollution down the coast is also a culprit, he said.

How long the air will stay dangerous depends on what happens with the fires, the weather in Canada and the wind. Weather forecasters trying to predict the air quality struggle to make estimates with much precision beyond a 48-hour window, Mr. James said. Their models rely on satellite measurements of the magnitude of wildfires, but do not predict whether the fires will get better or worse over time, beyond a typical pattern of growing slightly stronger during the hot part of the day and slightly weaker at night.

Predicting the wind that moves the smoke around is also a challenge, particularly during the summer. Wind during the winter tends to be more predictable. Summer winds are often produced by thunderstorms, which are small, local and typically short-lived. The New York area could see improvement Thursday and Friday with smoke expected to move south and west, the National Weather Service said, but any major change may not occur until early next week.

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Why the Wildfire Smoke From Canada Poses Devastating Risks to Your Long-Term Health

Particulate matter 50 times smaller than a grain of sand can make your throat scratchy and your eyes water, but the health effects don’t stop there. 

Hundreds of wildfires are raging across the Canadian provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and Nova Scotia, sending smoke south into the United States and triggering a slew of health warnings.

Wildfire smoke contains a high concentration of fine and ultrafine particulate matter, which can be inhaled and even absorbed into the bloodstream; this can cause serious health effects in children, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems. 

To protect yourself, stay inside with the windows closed. If you do need to venture outside, wear a high-quality N95 mask and avoid strenuous activity and exercise. 

This week, hazy skies have hovered over an enormous swath of the country—from Texas to Vermont, from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Coast—while densely populated metro areas like New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., have endured their worst air quality in decades. Scores of towns across the northeast have shattered air quality records, and ground stops were issued at LaGuardia and Newark International Airports thanks to low visibility.

The culprit? An outbreak of wildfires in Quebec, Ontario, and Nova Scotia, along with a strong system of northerly winds pushing massive plumes of smoke south. If you woke up with a scratchy throat, watery eyes, or a pounding headache, chances are that wildfire smoke from Canada is to blame. 

What Makes Wildfire Smoke So Dangerous?

Wildfire smoke is a potent combination of gaseous pollutants like carbon monoxide, air toxins, and particulate matter. According to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, particulate matter is the main component of wildfire smoke as well as the largest threat to public health. 

Particulate matter is the catch-all term for a mixture of solid and liquid droplets suspended in the air, and it’s present in both the indoor and outdoor air we breathe every day. Some of the particles are big enough to see—the dust in your living room, for example, or the pollen on your car. But some particles are so small they can only be seen using an electron microscope.

Ninety percent of particulate matter in wildfire smoke is made up of smaller particles, the ones 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter, or 50 times smaller than a grain of sand. Health authorities often issue air-quality warnings based on the concentration of these particles in the air, a metric known as PM 2.5. That’s because at this size, these tiny specks of particulate matter are small enough to be inhaled and travel deep into the lungs.

Worse, wildfire smoke also contains even tinier bits called ultrafine particles, which have a diameter less than one-tenth of a micrometer. These particles can pass directly into the bloodstream. 

What Are the Short- and Long-Term Impacts of Exposure?

Once in the lungs, particulate matter can wreak havoc, causing coughing, wheezing, and difficulty breathing. These tiny invaders can also interfere with the body’s ability to fend off other inhaled materials like viruses and bacteria, exacerbating or heightening the risk of pulmonary and cardiovascular illness. For people with a weakened immune system or preexisting conditions, the stress of smoke inhalation can trigger more serious health events, like an asthma or heart attack. Additionally, fine particulate matter can lead to dry or irritated eyes. 

Smoke from wildfires also contains carbon monoxide, which, when inhaled can reduce the oxygen that makes it to the body’s tissues and organs, leading to nausea, dizziness, and headaches. 

Exposure to wildfire smoke over many years has been connected with higher incidences of lung cancer and brain tumors, but few studies have been done concerning the long-term impact of wildfire smoke. But as climate change triggers larger, hotter fires and longer fire seasons, scientists are intensifying their efforts to study how the human body will react to the increased exposure. 

How to Stay Safe

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the most surefire way to avoid the health risks associated with wildfire smoke is to avoid the smoke itself. Pay attention to the Air Quality Index and heed the recommendations based on your local rating. 

That means if local health authorities urge you to stay inside, you should—and bring your pets with you. Try to keep the air as clean as possible; don’t smoke, burn candles, or run the vacuum, which can kick up the particulate matter already in your house. Keep your windows shut, and make sure your air conditioning unit has a clean filter and that the air intake is closed. If you don’t have air conditioning and it’s too hot to keep the windows closed, consider staying with a friend or family member until air quality levels return to normal. 

✅ Understanding the Air Quality Index: At around 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, the air quality index (AQI) for Easton, Pennsylvania—where Pop Mech’s offices are based—hit 451, an astronomically high rating considered “hazardous,” according to AirNow.gov, the EPA-run website for air quality data. That means everyone, regardless of their health, should remain indoors. To put this into context, the scale ranges from 0–500, with the following categories:

Green (0–50), Good: air quality is satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk

Yellow (51–100), Moderate: air quality is acceptable, however there may be a risk for some people, particularly those who are unusually sensitive to air pollution

Orange (101–150), Unhealthy for sensitive groups: members of sensitive groups may experience health effects. The general public is less likely to be affected

Red (151–200), Unhealthy: some members of the general public may experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects

Purple (201–300), Very unhealthy: health alert; the risk of health effects is increased for everyone

Maroon (301 and up), Hazardous: health warning of emergency conditions; everyone is more likely to be affected

If you do need to go outside, mask up. Cloth masks won’t protect your lungs from fine particulate matter, but a high-quality N95 mask will. Save that long run or HIIT routine for another time. 

These precautions especially apply to those with compromised immune systems and the very young or old. People who have preexisting pulmonary or cardiovascular diseases may want to talk to their doctor about how to protect themselves and invest in a freestanding indoor air filter.
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Is the Air Quality in the Northeast Giving You a Headache? You’re Not Alone

BY CALIN VAN PARIS, published June 8, 2023

Whether you call the northeastern United States home or are just active on social media, you’re likely aware of the smoke. Cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore are currently filled with settled smoke, a sepia-toned byproduct of the rampant wildfires currently affecting Canada. For residents, the affected air quality (which as of Wednesday was measured at 14.5 times the World Health Organization’s air-quality-guideline value) is leading to symptoms induced by both the actual conditions and the stress of the situation—including some severe headaches. 

“If you’re experiencing stress, especially new stress for the air quality where you live, there is a strong likelihood that any new onset headaches are likely stemming from the stress and the inhalation of the smoke from the wildfires,” says Doug Laher, Chief Operating Officer of the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC), who notes that elevated heart rate and increased blood pressure team to increase headache potential. “The current concentration of smoke and the unprecedented amount of airborne particles present at this time are toxic and can cause even the healthiest individual to feel unwell,” adds indoor air quality expert Michael Rubino. Exposure to poor air quality can cause sinus inflammation and oxidative stress, both of which lead to headaches. 

Air quality level is largely determined by the presence of PM, or particulate matter, airborne particles small enough to be inhaled, bypassing our body’s self-defense mechanisms and making their way into our bloodstream. According to the EPA, these particles are classified as PM10, particles that have a diameter of around 10 micrometers or less, and PM2.5, fine particles that have a diameter of around 2.5 micrometers or less. Add to that the chemicals that can be found in wildfire smoke (think aldehydes, acid gases, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and more), and symptoms like coughing, scratchy throats, shortness of breath, and headaches become a natural response. 

So how do we deal? “Staying inside is the best way to help protect our systems from smoke contamination produced by wildfires and when the AQI rises above 150,” says Rubino. “When going outside for any reason, wear an N95 mask to lower your exposure as much as possible to particulate matter in the air.” Carrying medications or inhalers is a necessary next step for those with preexisting respiratory conditions, and wearing long-sleeve clothing (temperature permitting) can help curb dermal exposure. 

Indoors, investing in a HEPA air purifier can help keep your home safe (and headache-free) regardless of external conditions. And while you’re at it, take a moment to relax. “A calm, soothing environment is always favorable for those with headaches,” says Laher. Lower the lights, stow your phone, and lay still. Some elements of the outside world may be out of your control, but with some mindfulness, your internal world can remain a regulated climate.