Experts say that every day, about 1 in 4 Americans, or 83 million people, breathe in air that isn’t good.
As the Canadian fires spread across the country and brought smoke into the United States, many Americans had to deal with bad air quality. New York now has the worst air quality it has had since the 1960s because of this. It’s only going to get worse over time, as many experts say 125 million more Americans will be subject to bad air quality.
A similar event happened many years ago, which led to the passage of the Clean Air Act in the 1970s. However, the problem may be harder to solve this time because it involves climate change as well as pollution from people.
The worsening of air quality can have many bad effects. “Basically, we’re adding back more early deaths and heart attacks.” Jeremy Porter, head of climate implications research at First Street, said, “We’re losing productivity in the markets by losing more days to work outside.”
People are already leaving places where the air quality is bad or where they might have to deal with flames.
“We’ve seen very early statistical signals in our own analysis that people are moving away from the smoke that comes from wildfire,” he said. “When people leave an area, property values drop because it’s no longer as desirable.” And then, as the area loses its appeal, tax revenues are directly affected because property prices are going down.
According to experts, the number of days with bad air quality is likely to rise over time. There are many things that affect our air quality, like climate change, higher temps, and wildfires that release more particulate matter into the air. These things can have a big impact on both the climate and the air quality.
Professionals also talked about what people can do to stay safe on days when the air quality is bad, like closing their windows and doors and staying inside as much as possible.