The air quality near you can be checked

The Los Angeles Times reports that California wildfires have caused an urban air quality crisis and that air quality affects school schedules, schools and aftercare programs

When New York City’s skyline turned an eerie orange color with smoke from widespread wildfires in Canada, it was an all-too-familiar sight for residents of the Western U.S. In recent years, record-setting wildfires have darkened the sky for weeks at a time with unhealthy air, upending life for Westerners.

NPR’s California Newsroom has reported that there is a problem with smoke from the wildfire. The risk is expected to go up, as a hotter climate makes for larger and more severe fires that take months to contain.

Some households had air quality measures in place. Researchers at the University of California Berkeley studied the data from 1,400 sensors in San Francisco and Los Angeles and found that even indoors, air pollution tripled during the fires.

Just going outside isn’t enough. Invisible particles in smoke, known as particulate matter or PM 2.5, can seep in through doors and cracks in windows. In older homes and substandard housing, the infiltration can be even worse.

Still, researchers found the households that took action fared much better. The people with the lowest levels of indoor pollution were those that had closed their windows or central air conditioners.

When smoke fills the skies, portable indoor air purifiers are hard to find in a store. There are plans to build more affordable air purifications that will be done online where the only requirements are a box fan, some air filters and duct tape.

Many schools close when air quality reaches hazardous levels, but policies can be patchwork and haphazard. While an elementary school might close for the day, nearby preschools or aftercare programs might remain open.

The decision can be fraught for school administrators. There are no other options for parents who work to send their children to school. And knowing when to keep kids indoors can be tough for families, based on the official air quality index or AQI. Children are considered a sensitive group, and there’s not much to know about keeping them safe while an air alert is in effect.

As wildfire smoke became more severe in California, state officials released an index with more specific advice for schools about activities, like what to do about P.E., recess and sports events. (In the state’s version, it doesn’t mention exact air quality index numbers, though many school districts have consulted local air quality officials and created guidelines, like this version from Shasta County Office of Education.)

Creating smoke response plans with the community in mind is important for schools, according to Eric Wittmershaus. On the West Coast, “smoke days” are becoming the new “snow days.”

Wittmershaus says that school officials should consider whether students will be safer and healthier if they’re in a school building with a better air conditioning system. “It’s going to be a fact of life.”

The air quality in New York is poor and the health department recommends wearing a mask to hide the mouth and nose. Even though you may have some cloth masks around the house from the height of the coronavirus pandemic, more substantial protection is required for wildfire smoke.

“We see people with access to less resources who want to reduce their exposure but are unable to do so,” according to a professor at the department of earth system science.

Overall, not many people are checking the air quality index on a regular basis and changing their behavior, her research found. Seeing how people react to smoke is the bigger motivator.

The lesson: make sure the message is coming from those in the local community, like community groups, senior centers or faith groups. Providing masks, air filters and resources to groups on the ground can help ensure it reaches those who need it most.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, a cloth mask prevents the spread of your respiratory droplets, but it doesn’t stop all the tiny particles from wildfire smoke traveling down to your lungs when you inhale polluted air. One of your best options is a snug N95. Need more high quality masks? Here’s our roundup of where to get N95s online.

Keeping the AQI in your town: An app for monitoring the air quality at WIRED and the metrology of the San Francisco area

Tap on this number to see a breakdown of why the AQI is that score. For example, the AQI in San Francisco at the time of writing is 48. Ozone levels are the primary pollutant that contributes to the score, I can see it from the data.

Urban centers are required to measure and report the daily levels of pollution to the EPA. Air quality data can be difficult to find in a more rural area. It’s helpful to check with local leaders to see how much information is available in your town.

There are multiple free apps you can download to keep tabs on the AQI. One option favored by members of the WIRED staff is an app called AirCare, and it’s quite straightforward to set up.

First, download the app to your smartphone. After that’s done, open the app and allow it to have access to your location data. The main screen of the app displays an air quality number based on pollution near you.