Air in New York seriously polluted by wildfires in Canada: “Has a huge impact on people’s health” | Science & Planet

LOOK. The air in New York is dirty, as these images show. Martijn Peters explains

Hundreds of forest fires are raging in the Canadian region of Quebec. An area the size of Belgium has already burned down this year: 3.3 million hectares. And the weather forecasts are not good: it seems that the fires will not diminish for the next month. If the fires continue at this rate, Canada is heading for a record.

Some 1,000 firefighters have been deployed, including forces from the United States, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. France also promises to send auxiliary troops.

This is noticeable in Canadian cities such as Toronto, where the smoke passes over. But the effects of the fires are even greater thanks to a northwesterly wind hundreds of miles away, in US cities such as New York, Detroit and Philadelphia. The former is currently even the city with the greatest air pollution worldwide, according to this IQ Airwhich tracks air quality in 95 global cities.

The quality is twenty times worse than the healthy guideline of the World Health Organization WHO. Normally, the air in New York is quite good, with a value that is a maximum of two times higher than the WHO guideline.

Now it is less healthy than in Kuwait and Delhi, India. Breathing New York’s dirty air for 24 hours is equivalent to smoking nearly five cigarettes. Tuesday night was even worse and the air quality was equivalent to almost 7 cigarettes in 24 hours.

It concerns the smallest fine dust particles, PM 2.5. Over time, these can cause all kinds of cardiovascular and lung diseases, says Martijn Peters. With very long exposure to a lot of particulate matter, people can even die.

New York schools have canceled outdoor activities, CNN reports. Some outdoor sports are also cancelled. The elderly and children are especially vulnerable. The American equivalent of the Lung Fund advises to stay indoors as much as possible at the transmitter.

Which also doesn’t help: it has been very warm in New York and the surrounding area for a while, with temperatures well above 20 degrees. The wind is not strong, so the dirty air can linger for a long time. A turn in the weather in the eastern US may provide relief for the cities. Some precipitation is already predicted on Friday and after the weekend meteorologists expect several days of rain.