Quebec Wildfires Cause 2nd Day Air Quality Alerts On Long Island

LONG ISLAND, NY — The air quality will be poor again Wednesday on Long Island, with widespread haze and patchy smoke expected all day and all night.

The National Weather Service issued the advisory for both Nassau and Suffolk counties through 11:59 p.m., it predicts the Air Quality Index value to be greater than, for the pollutant of fine particulates.

Exposure to large concentrations of fine particulate matter can cause short-term health effects such as irritation to the eyes, nose, and throat, coughing, sneezing, runny nose, and shortness of breath. Exposure to elevated levels of fine particulate matter can also worsen medical conditions such as asthma and heart disease. People with heart or breathing problems, and children and the elderly may be particularly sensitive, New York health officials said.

The New York State Department of Health recommends you consider limiting strenuous outdoor physical activity to reduce the risk of adverse health effects.

Those with symptoms should consider consulting their personal physician.

On Tuesday, people across Long Island could smell and see smoke through the yellow-gray haze. In central New York, Syracuse Hancock International Airport reported a visibility of only 1.75 miles, according to an AccuWeather analysis of NWS data, and schools kept children inside.
Meanwhile, Quebec ordered more evacuations late Tuesday as dozens of wildfires remain out of control, the Associated Press reported.

According to the province’s forest fire prevention agency, more than 150 forest fires were burning in the province, including more than 110 deemed out of control. They are big and relatively close, about 500 to 600 miles away from Rhode Island.

Jay Engle, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Upton, Long Island, said the wind trajectory that allowed smoke and hazy conditions to be seen in the New York City area could continue for the next few days. Of course, he said, the main driver of conditions is the fires themselves. If they diminish, the haze would too, the AP reported.

Air quality alerts are triggered by a number of factors, including the detection of fine-particle pollution — known as “PM 2.5” — which can irritate the lungs.

“We have defenses in our upper airway to trap larger particles and prevent them from getting down into the lungs. These are sort of the right size to get past those defenses,” said Dr. David Hill, a pulmonologist in Waterbury, Connecticut, and a member of the American Lung Association's National Board of Directors. “When those particles get down into the respiratory space, they cause the body to have an inflammatory reaction to them.”

Trent Ford, the state climatologist in Illinois, said the atmospheric conditions in the upper Midwest creating dry, warm weather made it possible for small particulates to travel hundreds of miles from the Canadian wildfires and linger for days.

“It’s a good example of how complex the climate system is but also how connected it is,” Ford said.

If you go out, consider wearing an N95 mask to reduce your exposure to pollutants. Stay inside, keeping your doors, windows and fireplaces shut. It's recommended that you run the air conditioning on a recirculation setting.

“If you have filters on your home HVAC system, you should make sure they’re up-to-date and high quality,” Hill said. “Some people, particularly those with underlying lung disease, or heart disease, should consider investing in air purifiers for their homes.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.