Being outside when the AQI is that high can have harmful health effects, including shortness of breath, throat irritation, itchy eyes, dizziness, fatigue, and a headache.
“When the AQI climbs into the 150+ range for a full day outside, that’s in the ballpark of [smoking] seven to nine cigarettes,” Dr. Jonathan M. Tan, division chief of General Anesthesiology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told AccuWeather.
Local officials and health experts urged people in areas grappling with poor quality to stay inside as much as possible and avoid strenuous activity. They recommended that people who need to go outside wear N95 masks to protect themselves from inhaling the polluted air as much as possible.
While forecasters have predicted that the heat and smoke will subside in some areas starting on Friday, they’ve also said that the air quality could worsen yet again this weekend in others. The National Weather Service said that air pollution would continue to be “a concern this weekend as northwesterly flow continues to usher in smoke from Canadian wildfires toward the northeastern quarter” of the country.
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