Tobacco from forest fires raging in three Canada provinces covered about a third US today, meteorologists said, but the impact is small in air quality with the exception of New England and parts of the New York State and Middle Ages.
The fog, which caused dangerous levels of air pollution in Minnesota yesterday, extends from Dakota through the Ohio Valley to the northeast states and south to Georgia, according to the US Meteorological Meteorological Service Center. It was particularly dense in New York and New England.
“Much of the tobacco is hovering in the higher atmosphere, so in many areas there have been no air quality problems,” explained Mark Cennard, a US National Weather Service meteorologist. “But there are problems in New York and Contetik where it is thicker and is found in the lower atmosphere.”
Large forest fires have been raging in Canada since early May. More than 212 active outbreaks burned in the country yesterday afternoon, half of which uncontrollably, according to the Canadian Center for Forest Fire. So far, 20 million acres have been burned.
Yang Liu, an Environmental Health Professor at Emory University in Atlanta, said infants, the elderly and people with health problems are more at risk of tobacco, but stressed that everyone is in danger. “It will affect every person to some extent, in every area of life,” he said. “The situation is bad.”
One of the worst points for air quality in the northeast states this morning was Williamstone, in Massachusetts, near the state’s border with Vermond and New York. A “very unhealthy” measurement was recorded in 228, according to IQAIR, a site that monitors air quality worldwide.
A air quality measurement below 50 is considered “good” and the measurements between 100 and 300 are considered “unhealthy” to “very unhealthy”, while higher are considered “dangerous”, according to the site.
SOURCE: RES-EIA-REUTERS
