Air Quality Alert continues for New York City area due to Canadian wildfire smoke
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Raging wildfires in Canada are impacting millions of people across the U.S. and the smoky air is triggering hazardous Air Quality Alerts from the Great Lakes to New York City.
On Tuesday morning, New York City had the ninth-worst air quality in the world, thanks in large part to the wildfire smoke from Canada.
The only U.S. city with worse air quality on Tuesday morning was Detroit, which is just across the Canadian border.
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There are more than 700 fires burning in Canada and about 300 of those are labeled as out of control.
So far this year, fires burned more than 16 million acres across Canada -- more than double their 10-year average.
And those flames are causing hazardous air quality conditions across our region.
Experts are urging people with respiratory issues to take it easy and to avoid time outside while the Air Quality Alert remains in place.
"People with lung diseases or heart diseases like asthma or emphysema will feel it," said Dr. Ali Musani.
Musani is the chief of pulmonology at Northwell's Lenox Hill Hospital. He himself has asthma and says after 30 minutes outdoors on Tuesday, he could feel it.
He says people in sensitive groups like older people and children may experience difficulty breathing, coughing, shortness of breath, or sneezing.
He recommends they try to stay indoors and if you have to be outside, wear an N95 or K95 mask.
"Even the healthy people should not go out to work out or run or bike or do strenuous outdoor activities," he said.
New York state health officials and Environmental Conservation officials say they expect this to be a multi-day event. They are predicting poor air quality at least until Thursday.
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