Health
Hazy Skies Linger After Days of Poor Air Quality in Chicago. What It Could Mean for Your Health
Hazy skies remain as Canadian wildfire smoke moves across the Chicago area.
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued an air quality alert for the city on Thursday and kept extending it through Sunday night. There was no alert Monday.
The NWS reported Monday’s air quality as moderate, issuing guidance for those with underlying health conditions to reduce their outside activity and stay indoors. Experts said people should keep an eye on their respiratory health and take precautions to avoid complications.
Trent Ford, the Illinois state climatologist, said ozone and microscopic dust and soot are unhealthy at high levels and contribute to poor air quality. The Environmental Protection Agency measures the concentration of these chemicals in the air when issuing air quality alerts.
“Ozone is actually fairly damaging to our respiratory airways when we breathe it in,” Ford said. “When we get those kinds of advisories, what people should do is really make a conscious effort to try not to do any really challenging labor or physical activity outside if at all possible.”
The recent air quality alerts came during a busy summer weekend of big festivals like Lollapalooza and Fiesta del Sol. Dr. Juanita Mora, a respiratory doctor and board director with the American Lung Association, said she saw more patients coming in with eye irritation and other complications the past few days.
“I have Saturday clinic, so I saw a lot of kids and adults, including a 69-year-old asthmatic patient who said she was having such a hard time breathing, normally under really good control, and she had just been outdoors for just a little while but didn’t wear a mask,” Mora said.
Mora said children, pregnant people and those with underlying lung conditions are most at risk for particle pollution. She said people can often experience eye irritation, sinus congestion, wheezing and coughing, among several other symptoms. If left untreated or if people don’t take precaution, poor air quality can lead to adverse health effects like pre-term labor, strokes and heart attacks.
“We want to make sure that people are wearing an N95 mask,” Mora said. “If they’ve been working outdoors, making sure that they also get home and they change their clothes, they take a shower and they do nasal saline washes to try to wash out these particles out of their actual sinuses to prevent them from going into their lungs.”
People can also run an air purifier to clean the air inside; run car air conditioning on recycle mode when driving; keep windows closed; and seek medical or emergency help if symptoms worsen.
Ford recommends people check the air quality more regularly.
“We’re all accustomed to checking our phone or checking the weather forecast every single day,” Ford said. “This is the time of year because of the wildfire smoke that we also probably should be checking the air quality now through the EPA on a daily basis. Wake up, check the weather — ‘Is it going to rain? Is it going to be hot or cold?’ Also, what the air quality is like so you can prepare accordingly.”
Check the air quality in your area here.
