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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/08/air-quality-record-smoke-hazard-wildfire-worst-day-ever-canada-new-york>
"The US experienced its worst toxic air pollution from wildfire smoke in its
recent recorded history on Wednesday, researchers have found, with people in
New York exposed to levels of pollution more than five times above the national
air quality standard.
The rapid analysis of the extreme event, shared with the
Guardian, found that
smoke billowing south from forest fires in Canada caused Americans to suffer
the worst day of average exposure to such pollution since a dataset on smoky
conditions started in 2006.
“It’s the worst by far, I mean, Jesus, it was bad,” said Marshall Burke, an
environmental scientist at Stanford University who led the work. “It’s hard to
believe to be honest, we had to quadruple check it to see if it was right. We
have not seen events like this, or even close to this, on the east coast
before. This is a historic event.”
The Stanford researchers calculated that the average American on Wednesday was
exposed to 27.5 micrograms per cubic meter of small particulate matter carried
within the plumes of smoke. These tiny flecks of soot, dust and other burned
debris, known as PM2.5, bury deep in the lungs when inhaled and are linked to a
variety of health conditions and can cause deaths.
This high average level of pollution is well beyond the next largest such
event, experienced in September 2020 on the US west coast following a record
year of fires in the western states, and was far more severe for those directly
in the path of the smoke, across much of the north-east US."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
