Air quality: Noxious smoke eases over US but wildfires still major threat in Canada

Hundreds of flights were delayed and dozens of public events cancelled across the eastern United States on Thursday as smoky haze caused by Canadian wildfires led to hazardous pollution.

Health officials in more than a dozen states warned millions of residents that spending time outdoors could cause respiratory issues due to the high levels of fine particulates in the atmosphere.

Alastair Jamieson reports:

The air quality in some major cities along the East Coast has improved greatly since earlier this week when heavy smoke from Canadian wildfires lingered over New York City, Washington DC, Philadelphia and more.

Here’s what the air quality index (AQI) is as of Friday morning according to AirNow.gov:

New York City: 64, Moderate

Philadelphia: 116, Unhealthy for sensitive groups

Pittsburgh: 125, Unhealthy for sensitive groups

Dover: 160, Unhealthy

Washington DC: 70, Moderate

Columbus: 99, Moderate

Detroit: 132, Unhealthy for sensitive groups

Thick, smoky air from Canadian wildfires made for days of misery in New York City and across the U.S. Northeast this week. But for much of the rest of the world, breathing dangerously polluted air is an inescapable fact of life — and death.

Almost the entire world breathes air that exceeds the World Health Organization’s air-quality limits at least occasionally. The danger grows worse when that bad air is more persistent than the nightmarish shroud that hit the U.S. — usually in developing or newly industrialized nations. That’s where most of the 4.2 million deaths blamed on outdoor air pollution occurred in 2019, the UN’s health agency reported.

“Air pollution has no boundaries, and it is high time everyone comes together to fight it,” said Bhavreen Kandhari, the co-founder of Warrior Moms in India, a network of mothers pushing for clean air and climate action in a nation with some of the world’s consistently worst air. “What we are seeing in the U.S. should shake us all.”

“This is a severe air pollution episode in the U.S.,” said Jeremy Sarnat, a professor of environmental health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. “But it’s fairly typical for what millions and millions of people experience in other parts of the world.”

Read more at The Associated Press

As the US heads into the weekend, near-surface wildfire smoke pouring from Canada’s devastating wildfires is expected to continue plaguing regions from the Great Lakes to the Mid-Atlantic with reduced air quality.

The National Weather Service reported on Friday morning that a low pressure system over the Northeast will continue to push the flow of smoke over the region.

By Saturday, the smoke is expected to shift to more of a westerly direction.

Pockets of denser smoke could significantly reduce air quality and lead to lowering visibility, with a wider region of light to moderate smoke leading to an opaque sky and orange sunsets/sunrises. NWS said.

Air Quality Alerts remain in effect from Michigan and Indiana to the northern Mid-Atlantic.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, announced on Thursday that the bloc would send firefighters to support Canada in fighting its huge wildfires.

France, Portugal and Spain were offering an initial 280 firefighters and more would be forthcoming, she tweeted.

“Canada has requested support from the EU Civil Protection Mechanism - and we are responding promptly,” she said.

Wildfire smoke is drifting across the Atlantic Ocean and will spread across Europe in the coming days, according to scientists at the Climate and Environmental Research Institute, NILU, in Norway.

The smoke arrived in Norway on Friday after moving across Greenland and Iceland over the past week.

“We may be able to see some haze or smell smoke”, said NILU senior scientist Nikolaos Evangeliou.

“However, we do not believe that the number of particles in the air here in Norway will be large enough to be harmful to our health.”

The mayors of major North American cities badly affected by wildfire smoke pollution this week issued a statement on Friday.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Mayor Valérie Plante of Montréal, Interim Mayor Jennifer McKelvie of Toronto, Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, DC, and Mayor Jim Kenney of Philadelphia released the remarks via C40 Cities - a global network of nearly 100 mayors “that are taking urgent action to confront the climate crisis”.

“As Mayors of impacted cities, we are deeply concerned about the current air quality crisis in east coast US and Canadian cities, caused by the devastating wildfires in Canada,” the statement read.

“As we work to respond to the immediate health concerns in our communities, this alarming episode serves as a stark reminder of the harmful impacts that the climate crisis is having on cities around the world.

“Our mission is clear: Without drastically reducing fossil fuel use in order to at least halve our emissions by 2030 we will likely be condemning ourselves to a future filled with weeks like these in cities across the world. Achieving this goal will take all hands on deck. We stand ready to address this climate and health emergency and call on all governments, companies, and residents to act with us.”