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How to protect your lungs as NYC’s air quality suffers from wildfires
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HOW TO PROTECT YOUR LUNGS AS NYC’S AIR QUALITY SUFFERS FROM WILDFIRES



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By
Nsikan Akpan
,
Elizabeth Shwe
and
Sean Carlson

Published Jun 7, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.

18 comments

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Christopher Alonzo

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By
Nsikan Akpan
,
Elizabeth Shwe
and
Sean Carlson

Published Jun 7, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.

18 comments

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Canadian wildfires are spreading smoke across parts of the Northeast for a
second straight week. By midday Tuesday, the worst air quality measured
nationwide belonged to parts of New York and Connecticut, while New Jersey also
carried a heavy burden.

The primary pollutant was particulate matter — microscopic solids or liquids
that can be breathed deep inside the lungs. Wildfire smoke comes with a number
of hazardous ingredients, but particulate matter is among the worst due to how
it exacerbates chronic afflictions like asthma and heart disease.

Most of New York — from its western reaches to downstate — spent Tuesday under
“unhealthy” outdoor conditions, as gauged by the air quality index (AQI). It’s a
nationally standardized, color-coded system for communicating pollution. By
Tuesday evening, the AQI had risen to "very unhealthy" across New York City,
which meant the risk of health effects had increased for everyone and not just
groups with pre-existing conditions.



Even though air is all-encompassing, New Yorkers aren’t powerless when it comes
to keeping particulate matter out of their lungs. Jack Caravanos, a clinical
professor of environmental public health sciences at NYU, joined WNYC host Sean
Carlson on All Things Considered to talk about some modes for protecting one’s
health during wildfire season.

Their conversation came Tuesday afternoon as New York state environmental
officials extended an air quality alert through Wednesday night. They’re
advising people to avoid strenuous outdoor activity if possible. Mayor Eric
Adams issued a mask recommendation Tuesday evening for older adults and people
with breathing conditions or heart disease. His office also scheduled a briefing
for Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. to update the public.



Locals may want to keep this collective advice on hand this summer, given
climate change is turning parts of the tri-state into wildfire hotspots.

An interview transcript is available below. It was lightly edited for clarity.



SEAN CARLSON: CAN YOU START BY REMINDING US WHAT EXACTLY PARTICULATE MATTER IS
AND WHY IT IS DANGEROUS?

Jack Caravanos: Well, when you burn something, you end up with tiny, tiny,
microscopic particles that are organic in nature — carbonaceous — and they
penetrate deep into the lung. Cigarette smoke is actually a good example — that
smoke, that haze is actually billions of tiny particles, and they go pretty deep
into the lung.

WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO KEEP IT OUT OF THE LUNGS?



Well, clearly the best way in public health is to prevent it from ever
happening, and that's a whole other discussion. Why are these fires happening
and how can we prevent them from spreading and minimize them?

The reality is we can't rely on that all the time, so the most immediate way is
personal protection — the masks and respirators that we use that you see
firefighters using.

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SPEAKING OF MASKS, WE'VE SEEN PEOPLE WALKING AROUND WEARING SURGICAL MASKS. ARE
THOSE GOOD ENOUGH OR DO THEY WANT A HIGHER QUALITY ONE?

Surgical masks will do something. As a matter of fact, anything over your mouth
will have some beneficial effect.

But we would prefer you wear at least an N95, a KN95, which is a very tight,
filter material — that we have all learned a lot about during COVID.




A north-facing view from the WNYC office in Lower Manhattan at 4 p.m. (left) and
6 p.m. on Tuesday.

Sean Carlson

The key thing is that the mask should fit very tightly around your nose and
cheeks so that you don't get any bypass.

The biggest concern I have with what we saw during COVID is people were very
good at wearing masks, but they weren't good at wearing them the right way.

NOW, THE AIR QUALITY INDEX IS A COLOR-CODED SYSTEM FOR JUDGING THE SAFETY OF
WHAT WE BREATHE IN.

ORANGE TELLS PEOPLE WITH ASTHMA AND CHRONIC CONDITIONS TO BE ON GUARD.

RED — WHERE NEW YORK CITY HAS BEEN AT ALL DAY — ELEVATES THAT WARNING FOR MORE
MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL PUBLIC.



BUT WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR PEOPLE? HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO CHANGE OUR BEHAVIOR
TO STAY PROTECTED? WE HAVE TO BREATHE THE AIR, DON'T WE?

Absolutely. There's no way around that, but we could definitely do things to
minimize our exposure.

The red stands for unhealthy, and the conditions that cause us are kind of rare.
We have a forest fire, which is very low to the ground blowing in from a odd
direction. We don't usually get winds from the north, and it's coming right down
the Hudson Valley — right into Philadelphia, New York, Trenton, Connecticut,
Boston. The whole area is being inundated with this cloud,



The Allen Road Wildfire recently burned more than 5,000 acres across southern
New Jersey, spoiling local air quality.

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

The best way is to really minimize any type of physical activity that would
exacerbate the deposition of these particles into your lungs. That means go easy
on the jogging. Go easy on the tennis. Try to stay indoors because the indoor
air will stay cleaner, longer — assuming we're not opening windows.

It may be safer just to stay indoors. But if you are going outside and you have
a respiratory condition of any type, definitely a respirator — an N95 or K95
mask — would be advisable.



YOU MENTIONED THE CAUSES OF THE SMOKE BEING HERE, THOSE WILDFIRES IN CANADA.
RECORD HEAT IS DRIVING THOSE. NEW JERSEY IS ALSO ON PACE FOR A RECORD YEAR FOR
FIRES.

OBVIOUSLY, CLIMATE CHANGE IS AT PLAY HERE. YOU TALK TO PEOPLE FROM CALIFORNIA
WHO SAY, WELL, THESE FIRES ARE A WAY OF LIFE NOW. THEY JUST KIND OF EXPECT THEM
EVERY YEAR.

DO NEW YORKERS NEED TO BE PREPARED FOR SMOKE HAZARDS GOING FORWARD HERE? IS THIS
A REGULAR PART OF LIFE NOW?

All estimates seem to indicate that this is only going to get worse — that the
droughts are lasting longer and we're seeing higher temperatures. It was over 90
degrees in New York just last week.

We need to be prepared for more of this. To say "it's a fluke, it won't happen
again" is, I think, shortsighted. There’s a lot of things we could do with
forest fires and forest management. There are some solutions that way.

Ultimately, we need to get ready for more of these changes. I don't think
there's anything you and I can do in the next six months that will minimize
forest fires, but society as a whole needs to act.

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Related stories
NYC cancels outdoor school activities, issues mask warning amid unhealthy air in
NY, NJ


Tagged

wildfire
air quality
environment
new york city
Health and Science
new york state
climate change

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Nsikan Akpan
Twitter

Nsikan runs the health and science desk at WNYC/Gothamist. Nsikan was previously
at National Geographic where he worked as a science editor, overseeing its
COVID-19 coverage in addition to other topics in science, health and technology.
Before National Geographic, he worked for more than four years at PBS NewsHour,
where he co-created an award-winning video series named ScienceScope. He shared
a 2020 Emmy for the PBS NewsHour series “Stopping a Killer Pandemic” and in 2019
received a George Foster Peabody Award for the PBS NewsHour series “The Plastic
Problem.” Nsikan has also worked for NPR, Science News Magazine, Science
Magazine, KUSP Central Coast Public Radio, the Santa Cruz Sentinel and as a
writer at the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University. He holds
a doctorate in pathobiology from Columbia University and is an alum of the
science communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Read more
Elizabeth Shwe

Read more
Sean Carlson


Before coming to New York Public Radio, Sean worked in print, online and radio
news around the mid-Atlantic region and Alaska. A New Jersey native, he holds a
B.A. from the New School University in Greenwich Village and an M.A. from the
Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism.

Read more

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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