June 8, 2023 Canada wildfire smoke and US air quality news

As parts of the East Coast are expected to experience poor air quality through at least the weekend — and winds might move dense smoke farther south into the Mid-Atlantic — experts say pets could be at risk, too.

Dr. Gabrielle Fadl, director of primary care at Bond Vet Clinic in New York City, said her practice has had a “significant influx of calls” from concerned clients seeking guidance on how to protect their animals from the poor air quality outside. They also received a few calls from patients, particularly pregnant and elderly people, requesting to reschedule appointments.

To ensure pets’ well-being, Fadl advised considering the following precautions:

Limit outdoor activities. Reduce the time your pets spend outdoors as much as possible, especially during periods of unhealthy air quality. This can help minimize their exposure to harmful pollutants and allergens, she said.

You also shouldn’t run with your dog outdoors, said Dr. Peter DeCarlo, an associate professor in the department of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

New York City Emergency Management advised wiping your pet’s muzzle, feet and coat with a damp cloth after being outside.

Create a safe environment indoors. Make sure you have proper ventilation in your home. Keep the windows closed to prevent outdoor pollutants, such as fine particulate matter, from entering. Use air purifiers or filters to improve air quality inside.

Monitor animals’ symptoms. Be on the lookout for any signs of respiratory distress or discomfort in your pets, such as coughing, sneezing, wheezing or trouble breathing.

Consult with a veterinarian. Reach out to a trusted veterinarian for expert guidance catered to your pet’s specific needs. They can also recommend appropriate preventive measures or treatments.

CNN’s Amaya McDonald and Jen Christensen contributed reporting.

President Joe Biden during a national address in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on June 2.

President Joe Biden said Thursday that it’s vital for communities impacted by air pollution from Canadian wildfires to heed local guidance.

The president, speaking at a joint press conference at the White House with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, said, “It’s very important that affected communities listen to the guidance of their state and local officials from this point forward.”

“Check on one another,” Biden pleaded to Americans impacted by the smoke, adding that Americans can keep up to date on the air quality at AirNow.gov. 

A Code Purple was issued in the Washington, DC, area earlier Thursday, and the high-level warning has led to cancelations for schools and activities across the region.

The White House announced that a scheduled LGBTQ+ Pride Month event on the South Lawn would be postponed until Saturday based on the projected air quality in the region.

CNN’s Andrew Millman contributed to this report.

The Bronx Zoo, the Central Park Zoo and the New York Aquarium are closed today due to poor air quality in New York City, the Wildlife Conservation Society announced. 

“Due to the continued high air quality index caused by the Canadian wildfires, all the WCS parks – Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Queens Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, and New York Aquarium – will be closed today, June 8, for the safety of our staff, visitors and animals,” the group announced.

Tickets can be rescheduled for another time, the organization said.

A pedestrian wears a mask as smoke from Canada wildfires blankets Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 8.

Philadelphia “continues to experience serious air quality problems related to the smoke from the Canadian wildfires,” and fluctuations in the air quality indexes (AQI) are expected over the next several days, city health commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole said Thursday.

“There have been periods during which the air quality index rose to over 300 and even, to over 400, well into the hazardous range,” she said, adding that the AQIs in the city are “changing rapidly, hour by hour.” The AQI peaked between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Wednesday night, Bettigole said.

An AQI that falls between 151 and 200 is considered unhealthy, while the 201 to 300 range is considered very unhealthy. An AQI of more than 301 is hazardous.

The city’s health care facilities have not yet reported an overall uptick in patients due to the poor air quality, according to Bettigole.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said city officials are monitoring the situation and have directed all nonemergency personnel to avoid working outdoors Thursday.

All city-sponsored after-school programs, outdoor programming and activities at recreation centers have either been canceled or moved indoors, according to Kenney.

Students and staff within the Philadelphia school district are encouraged to wear masks to and from school and all windows and doors in schools will remain closed, Philadelphia Public Schools superintendent Dr. Tony Watlington said.

Nurses have been deployed to assist the schools if needed and any absences on Thursday, for both staff or students, will be excused, Watlington said.

CNN’s Travis Nichols contributed to this report.

After consulting with the club’s medical team, New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll canceled Thursday’s scheduled indoor practice, a team spokesperson told CNN when asked about the impact of the air quality in the area.

There isn’t a Friday practice, but minicamp practices are expected on Tuesday and Wednesday, Pat Hanlon, senior vice president of communications for the Giants, told CNN.

CNN’s Jill Martin contributed to this report.

New Jersey residents are encouraged to stay indoors as the air quality in the state remains in the “very unhealthy” range, Gov. Phil Murphy said, adding that the Department of Environmental Protection declared air-quality action days for Thursday and Friday.

“The widespread nature and uncommonly high levels of fine particulate concentrations reaching the unhealthy category is of a historic magnitude,” Murphy said at a press conference Thursday.

In three parts of the state, the air quality index (AQI) was above 200, a range that is considered very unhealthy. The highest concentrations of smoke are expected to dissipate over the next several hours, but Murphy warned the haze and smoke will likely get more dense Thursday evening.

All sensitive people — including whose with health conditions like asthma and heart disease and those who are pregnant — as well as children and seniors are especially encouraged to remain indoors.

New Jersey State Police and the Office of Emergency Management are distributing masks to those who need them, the governor said. Masks are available at major NJ Transit locations including Newark Penn Station, Camden, Trenton, Secaucus and Hoboken, he added.

“If anybody has any doubts this past couple of days and what we’re going to be dealing with for the next few days, climate change is here, and unfortunately, this is our new reality,” Murphy said. “It only hardens our resolve to aggressively pursue the bold action our climate change reality demands.”

Wildfires in Canada and the smoke moving across the United States serves as another “stark reminder of the impacts of climate change,” President Joe Biden said Thursday.

Biden said the Environmental Protection Agency is “continuously monitoring air quality and providing critical updates for each relevant zip code.” He directed Americans to check AirNow.gov for guidance in their areas. 

In addition to sending US aid to help battle the fires in Canada, Biden said he asked Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to keep him informed on the implications for air travel.

Biden cautioned Americans to “stay safe and follow the guidance of your local officials.”

Wildfires and climate change: Human-caused climate change has exacerbated the hot and dry conditions that allow wildfires to ignite and grow. Scientists recently reported that millions of acres scorched by wildfires in the western US and Canada — an area roughly the size of South Carolina — could be traced back to carbon pollution from the world’s largest fossil fuel and cement companies.

And when they burn, the smoke can travel thousands of miles downstream, putting millions more people in harm’s way.

CNN’s Derek Van Dam, Robert Shackelford, Jennifer Gray, Monica Garrett and Rachel Ramirez contributed to this report.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is using several satellites to measure and monitor wildfires burning in Canada and the smoke blowing into parts of the United States.

NOAA’s geostationary satellites — GOES East and GOES West — are tracking both the fires and smoke in near real-time, the agency said. They can also identify hot spots, detect changes in the behavior of the fire and help determine how large and hot the fire is, NOAA said.

Others, including the Joint Polar Satellite System’s NOAA-20 and Suomi NPP satellites, are measuring data to determine how tall the smoke plume is and predict the direction it may move, it said on its website.

The agency said the goal of using all of these satellites and equipment together is to create a comprehensive picture of the fires and the smoke in order to warn people who could be affected. In some cases it could be “life-saving information in a dynamic fire environment,” it said.

By the numbers: There have been more than 2,200 wildfires in Canada so far this year, according to NOAA, putting it on track to have “the worst wildfire season on record.” The fires have burned an area larger than the state of Maryland, it said.

As of Thursday, wildfires are burning in every province and territory in Canada, except for Prince Edward Island and Nunavut, NOAA said. That includes 133 active wildfires across Quebec, according to the area’s fire prevention agency, Société de protection des forêts contre le feu (SOPFEU).

Evening commuters travel on Broad Street past a hazy City Hall in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

Schools in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are taking precautions amid the spread of Canadian wildfire smoke and impact on air quality:

New York state is sending forest rangers to Canada to help fight the wildfires in Quebec, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday. 

“After I spoke to the consul-general yesterday to just touch base in Canada (on) how they’re doing, and he was meeting with the prime minister, we offered more assistance,” she said. “We’d offered previously, but they’re now taking us up on it.”

The first responders will leave New York for Quebec on Friday. The state will send at least seven people over the next two weeks, Hochul said.

The rangers, who are part of the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, will join firefighters from New Hampshire and Maine in Canada.

Travelers look at a departures monitor at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in Queens, New York, on Thursday, June 8.

Smoke from wildfires in Canada is a serious problem for airlines — creating conditions that cause more delays than rain or fog, the Federal Aviation Administration said. That’s because airlines rely on advanced navigation systems on the planes and on the ground, according to the FAA’s Kevin Morris.

In times when visibility is impacted by smoke, pilots need to take more precautions — such as keeping more distance between planes arriving and departing airports, Morris said. It’s also possible that some types of aircraft won’t be able to land in areas of heavy smoke because of the navigation equipment they have, he added.

More than 1,700 flights to, from and within the United States are being held up Thursday, according to tracking service FlightAware. 

Delays are expected into and out of New York City’s LaGuardia Airport until late Thursday night. The FAA’s operations plan for Thursday shows smoke potentially impacting travel from New York to Charlotte, North Carolina, throughout the day.

Watch the video:

People are rushing to buy air filters, humidifiers and high-quality masks on Amazon amid Canadian wildfires that have smothered large swaths of the United States in a thick plume of toxic smoke, leading to orange skies, a burnt taste in the air and advisories to stay inside.

Fine particles from the smoke can make their way indoors. Air purifiers can be helpful with filtering out the pollution.

As of Thursday morning, air filters were the top gainers in sales for tools and home improvement products on Amazon over the past 24 hours. A Levoit humidifier was the third biggest sales gainer. N95 and KN95 masks also spiked in Amazon sales rankings.

Searches on Google for air purifiers have increased 16 fold since Monday, according to Google trends. It’s still unclear when the smoke will dissipate over the United States overall, as prevailing winds push the haze around the country.

Companies see stock increases: Whirlpool, one of the largest home goods manufacturers in the world, has seen its stock surge 13.2% over the past five days and by 6.4% on Wednesday alone. The company says that its HEPA purifiers can remove up to 99.97% of bad particles from air.

Shares of Carrier Global, which makes residential and industrial air purifiers and HVAC units, have gained nearly 11% over the past five days.

Johnson Controls, which has a number of air filters on the market, has also seen its stock price soar. Shares are up by 8.5% over a five-day period.

The air purifier market is poised to grow as climate change increases air pollution and exacerbates breathing difficulties. A Market Insights report forecasts that the industry is expected to grow at an annual compound rate of 10.8% to $2.9 billion by 2025 and $4.8 billion by 2030.

Read more.

People wear masks amid hazy conditions due to smoke from the Canadian wildfires on June 8, in New York City.

Wildfire smoke is particularly dangerous because it contains tiny particulate matter, or PM2.5 – the tiniest of pollutants.

When inhaled, it can travel deep into lung tissue and enter the bloodstream. It comes from sources like the combustion of fossil fuels, dust storms and wildfires, and has been linked to several health complications including asthma, heart disease and other respiratory illnesses.

And the impacts could be deadly: In 2016, about 4.2 million premature deaths were associated with fine particulate matter, according to the World Health Organization.

“And it’s important that you do everything you can to remain indoors during those high, high pollution episodes, and it’s really important to keep an eye on your health or any development of symptoms.”

CNN’s Dave Hennen, Monica Garrett, Derek Van Dam, Rachel Ramirez and Robert Shackelford contributed to this report.

Lincoln Memorial is seen reflected in the reflecting pool at the national mall with a thick layer of smoke covering, on Thursday, June 8, in Washington, DC.

Mayor Muriel Bowser told Washington, DC, residents in plain terms Thursday that they should not spend any more time than they have to outside in poor air quality.

The mayor was addressing the public shortly after officials issued a Code Purple air quality warning for the city, the second-worst rating in the air quality index, up from Code Red. Code Purple is when air quality index levels fall between 201 and 300 and are considered to be very unhealthy, while Code Red is when they’re between 151 and 200, which is unhealthy.

“We’re spending a lot of time educating the public,” Bowser said, adding that “when they told me it was Code Purple, I thought it was getting better, so we’re not even used to this language to deal with this type of air quality.”

“We have advisories out to the public. We’re also going to modify some government operations, and we’re asking people to take heed,” Bowser said.

Officials expect local conditions to improve “significantly” by late Friday or early Saturday, said Dr. Chris Rodriguez, the director of the Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency for DC.

“We have not seen an uptick in hospitalizations due to air quality concerns,” Rodriguez added.

At its worst on Wednesday, Washington, DC’s air quality index was at a 204, which is “very unhealthy.”

Today, winds are moving smoke from the Canadian wildfires south toward DC and Baltimore. Conditions in the nation’s capital have worsened to “hazardous,” and the air quality index stood at 294 at 10 a.m. ET.

Here’s a look at the conditions DC-area residents woke up to today:

The Washington Monument stands among the haze Thursday morning.

Smoke obscures the view of the US Capitol.

Members of the US Marine Corps rehearse for the Sunset Parade at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC on Thursday morning.

People walk near the White House on Thursday.

Haze blankets the United States Marine Corps War Memorial as the sun rises Thursday.

A flock of geese swim in front of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial on Thursday.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called the poor quality in New York state an “extraordinary” and “unprecedented” event as smoke originating from Canadian wildfires impacts the state. She noted all regions of the state have unhealthy air quality index except the Adirondacks region.

Here are the air quality indexes she noted for some New York City boroughs:

Air quality index levels between 151 and 200 are considered unhealthy, while levels between 201 and 300 are considered very unhealthy. Hochul said some of the highest poor air quality indexes were recorded in New York City on Wednesday with some readings of more than 400.

While the conditions have improved since Wednesday and are forecast to keep improving, Hochul warned, “this is not over.”

“Normal is 50. Actually, quite often in the state of New York, we have pristine air,” she said at a press conference Thursday, urging residents to not get complacent.

She said the state’s school buildings remain safe due to improvements made to air purification systems during the Covid-19 pandemic. She said it was still too early to know whether the state’s healthcare facilities have been seeing an increase in patients due to the poor air quality.

Hochul also urged the use of masks in the current poor air quality conditions.

CNN’s Laura Ly contributed reporting to this post.

Major League Baseball has announced it will postpone Thursday afternoon’s game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Washington Nationals at the Nationals Park. The game had been originally scheduled for 1:05 p.m. ET.

This postponement was determined following conversations throughout the day with medical and weather experts and the two impacted teams “regarding clearly hazardous air quality conditions in Washington, DC,” MLB said in a release.

The game is scheduled to be made up on June 22.

The forecast around Washington, DC: Winds today are pushing thick smoke farther south into the Mid-Atlantic, meaning the same smoke seen in New York City this week could smother Delaware, Maryland, northern Virginia and Washington, DC, today.

The highest level of poor air quality — level 6 of 6 — became widespread over Washington, DC, and Baltimore earlier today, according to readings from the airnow.gov website.

The dangerous conditions in the DC area are likely to persist into tonight before slow improvement begins tomorrow.

A cyclist rides under a blanket of haze partially obscuring the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on June 8.

The highest level of poor air quality — level 6 of 6 — is becoming more widespread over Washington, DC, and Baltimore, according to readings from the airnow.gov website.

More than 20 sensors across the area are reporting an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 300 plus, which is considered hazardous for everyone and when all outdoor physical activity should be avoided.

The thick smoke has been drifting south into the District, and AQI numbers have been rising all morning. “Hazardous” and “very unhealthy” conditions are widespread from Washington, DC, to Baltimore through Philadelphia into New York. 

The dangerous conditions are likely to persist into tonight before slow improvement begins tomorrow.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the city is seeing “gradual improvement” in air quality on Thursday after experiencing hazardous conditions Wednesday due to smoke from Canadian wildfires.

“It would be great to see the sun again, but the wind is going to determine that,” he continued.

He encouraged New Yorkers to wear N95 masks if they need to be outside.

Adams said officials do not expect another large plume of smoke to drift through the area.

“There’s a chance for significant improvement by tomorrow morning,” he said.

The forecast: Northerly winds on Thursday will start to push a thick band of smoke farther south into the mid-Atlantic, into cities including Washington, DC, and Baltimore.

The low pressure that is funneling the smoke into the US is forecast to linger over New England through the weekend, meaning northwest winds will continue to point the Canadian smoke toward the eastern Great Lakes and Northeast for the next couple of days.

This pattern could eventually break by next week as a new storm system moves in from the west. Significant rainfall and stronger winds are exactly what the Northeast needs to clear out the smoke.

CNN’s Brandon Miller contributed reporting to this post.

Much like humans, wildfire smoke and air pollution can be harmful to animals — including our beloved pets.

“Exposure to polluted air can have a profound impact on our pets’ health, leading to respiratory issues, allergies, and even exacerbating existing conditions such as asthma,” according to Dr. Gabrielle Fadl, the director of primary care with Bond Vet Clinic in New York City.

Here are some preventative steps she recommended:

Limit outdoor activities: Reduce the time your pets spend outdoors as much as possible, especially during periods of unhealthy air quality. This can help minimize their exposure to harmful pollutants and allergens, Fadl said.

Create a safe environment indoors: Make sure you have proper ventilation in your home. Keep the windows closed to prevent outdoor pollutants, such as fine particulate matter, from entering. These are the tiniest, yet most dangerous of pollutants that come from sources such as wildfire smoke and have been linked to health problems such as asthma, heart disease and other respiratory illnesses. Use air purifiers or filters to improve air quality inside.

Monitor symptoms: Be vigilant for any signs of respiratory distress or discomfort in your pets, which includes coughing, sneezing, wheezing or trouble breathing. “If you notice any concerning symptoms, seek prompt veterinary care,” said Fadl.

Consult with your veterinarian: Reach out to your trusted veterinarian for guidance catered to your pet’s specific needs. They can give you the best advice and recommend appropriate preventive measures or treatments.

Here’s what New York Emergency Management on Twitter: