Canada Wildfires Creating Unhealthy Air Quality across Chicago Area

This week, areas throughout the Midwest, including parts of Illinois, are being impacted by poor air quality. Large wildfires in Canada have produced significant smoke that is moving toward our area, which is likely to cause elevated unhealthy fine particle readings on the Air Quality Index. The air quality is currently unhealthy to all. This air quality is especially harmful to sensitive groups, including children, older adults, and people with lung diseases like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The American Lung Association offers these six tips for people to avoid lung irritation and health complications due to increased air pollution:

1. Stay indoors. People living close to the fire-stricken areas should follow guidance from local authorities, and remain indoors to reduce breathing smoke, ashes and other pollution in the area if instructed to do so.

2. Protect the air in your home. Keep doors, windows and fireplace dampers shut and preferably with clean air circulating through air conditioners on the recirculation setting. You can also watch this video on how to create a clean room in your house.

3. Keep an eye on symptoms. Higher levels of smoke in some areas can make breathing more difficult. If you are experiencing symptoms that concern you, contact your healthcare provider.

4. Take precautions for kids. Extra precaution should be taken for children, who are more susceptible to smoke. Their lungs are still developing, and they breathe in more air (and consequently more pollution) for their size than adults.

5. Don’t count on a dust mask. Ordinary dust masks, designed to filter out large particles, and cloth facial coverings will not help. They still allow the more dangerous smaller particles to pass through. Special, more expensive dust masks with an N-95 or N-100 filter will filter out the damaging fine particles, but may not fit properly, are not made for children or adults with facial hair and are difficult for people with lung disease to use.

6. Ask for help. The American Lung Association’s Lung HelpLine at 1-800-LUNGUSA is staffed by nurses and respiratory therapists and is a free resource to answer any questions about the lungs, lung disease and lung health, including how to protect yourself during wildfires.

More information about wildfires and lung health can be found at Lung.org/wildfires. To request an interview with a representative from the American Lung Association, please contact Janye Killelea via email at [email protected] or call (312) 940-7624.