The smoke caused by the Canadian wildfires is increasingly restricting social life and the economy in major cities on the US east coast. For example, New York City’s public schools announced on Thursday that they would switch to distance learning on Friday. In Philadelphia, the city suspended garbage collection and street cleaning to protect workers from air pollution. In Washington DC, the city government closed all public parks and suspended road construction and paving.
Alex Kopp, safety director for the Association of Union Contractors, which represents 1800 construction companies, said there was “concern that air quality is affecting safety in the workplace” and urged members to take precautionary measures. The air pollution “represents a new challenge”.
Experts warned of medium and long-term consequences of air pollution. “You can see people have heart attacks on days with heavy air pollution. It affects them over a long period of time,” said Mark Borgschulte, assistant professor of economics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Scientists have also linked smoke exposure to long-term health problems, such as decreased lung function and a weakened immune system.
East Coast conditions are nothing new on the US West Coast – in fact, they are becoming more common. Since 2017, California has recorded eight of the ten largest wildfires in its history. “The West has always burned, and so has Canada,” said Loretta Mickley, co-leader of Harvard University’s Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling Group. Now there are “these massive amounts of smoke in a heavily populated region”.
A quick end is not foreseeable. “Conditions are likely to remain unhealthy, at least until the wind direction changes or the fires are extinguished,” said Meteorologist Bryan Ramsey of the US Weather Service. The smoke will probably keep people busy for a few more days. He hoped the wind direction would change because the wildfires would “probably continue for weeks.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a news conference in Albany that air quality is the worst since at least the 1960s. She spoke of a public health crisis. People in New York must remain vigilant even if there is a “little breather”. You always have to be prepared for a change in wind direction, said Hochul. It’s not over yet.
2023-06-09 06:09:00
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