Record-breaking air pollution grips New York, people urged to stay indoors

Kathmandu: Smoke from Canadian wildfires has shrouded New York in a record-breaking apocalyptic smog Wednesday.

From Maryland to the Canadian capital, a monstrous cloud of smoke spewed by Quebec’s wildfires has forced children to stay indoors, grounded flights in New York City and left millions of residents at risk of breathing unhealthy air.

The heaviest smoke Wednesday is expected to hit the Northeast through the mid-Atlantic and down to the Carolinas. Smoke conditions in those regions could last through at least Thursday.

New York City had an AQI of 484 at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, which is classified as ‘hazardous,’ Mayor Eric Adams said during a news conference Wednesday. That is the highest level on record in the city since the 1960s, he said.

Air quality conditions are likely to worsen through 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Wednesday evening before they temporarily improve later in the night and into Thursday morning, the mayor said. However, conditions will deteriorate again on Thursday afternoon and evening ‘as smoke moves back over the city,’ Adams said.

Similarly, more than 75 million people in the eastern US are under air quality alerts Wednesday due to the smoke, which made iconic skylines disappear behind wafting orange fumes.

Other North American cities were also being afflicted by smoke from the unprecedented wildfires, with Detroit affected particularly badly.

On Wednesday, schools in the Washington DC area also cancelled outdoor activities as air quality levels were labelled ‘code red’, while Detroit was listed as the fifth worst major metropolitan area in the world on IQAir’s air pollution rankings.

New York was the most polluted major city in the world on Tuesday night, according to the IQAir website. Pollution levels in the city were deemed to be in the ‘unhealthy’ range, and were higher than those in the Indian capital Delhi and Iraq’s Baghdad at 1:25 a.m. New York time, according to the Swiss air quality company.

Mayor Adams said in a statement Tuesday night that an Air Quality Health Advisory had been issued for all five boroughs, and while conditions were expected to improve through Wednesday morning, they were predicted to worsen again later in the day.

‘We are taking precautions out of an abundance of caution to protect New Yorkers’ health until we are able to get a better sense of future air quality reports,’ he said, ‘We recommend all New Yorkers limit outdoor activity to the greatest extent possible.’

Public health officials have cautioned people not to exercise outside and to minimise their exposure to the smoke as much as possible, as the air poses immediate and long-term health risks.