The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Why is the state under an air quality alert, and what should you do?
Smoke from massive wildfires burning out west is continuing to impact Connecticut.
The massive plumes of smoke now covers all of the northern United States along with parts of the Southeast and much of the Eastern Seaboard.
In much of the New York City region, haze from the smoke is causing brilliant red sunrises and sunsets.
In Oregon, the Bootleg Fire has torched more than 410,000 acres, making it the nation’s largest fire. The blaze is more than half contained. In California, the Dixie Fire has merged with another wildfire and burned around 200,000 acres.
Other fires are burning in Washington state and Montana.
“It’s pretty much blanketing much of the United States now,” said Gary Lessor, chief meteorologist at Western Connecticut State University’s weather center.
Most of Connecticut, with the exception of Litchfield County in the northwest, remains under an air quality alert due to the fine particles produced by the wildfire smoke.
Gov. Ned Lamont cited the smoke as a sign of climate change.
“If an air quality alert in CT caused by smoke traveling cross country from Western wildfires isn’t a sign that we must take climate action now at all levels of government, I don’t know what is,” the governor said in a tweet. “Let's address this crisis — for our children, grandchildren and future generations.”
Here’s what you need to know about the air quality in the region.
When will it be over?
The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has issued an air quality action day from 9 a.m. Tuesday through 11 p.m.
“Fine particulates from the departing wildfire smoke plume have been slow to disperse and unhealthy levels are expected to persist throughout the day,” the National Weather Service said in a bulletin.
A few scattered thunderstorms and showers overnight
Tuesday could clear the air, with some smoke still lingering Wednesday. On Thursday, air from eastern Canada and another weather system bringing more showers will likely suppress the smoke coming in from the south and west of Connecticut.
“But it’s only going to be a brief respite,” Lessor warned. “There’s just so much smoke ... Every opportunity it gets to come, it’s gonna do it, so people have got to get used to this.
He said there’s no end in sight until the fires out west are much more contained than they are now.
Is it unhealthy to be outside?
The state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is also encouraging residents to limit their activities outdoors in light of the smoke. The agency said fine particles from the smoke became trapped in the lower atmosphere and have been slow to disperse.
The particles will reach unhealthy levels for sensitive groups and could be unhealthy for unaffected people as well, according to
DEEP. In Litchfield County, the air quality will be lower, in the high-moderate range, according to the agency.
Elevated levels of fine particles are expected to impact most of the state, including the cities of Bridgeport, Danbury, East Hartford, Groton, New Haven and Waterbury.
Affected groups means people with respiratory or heart conditions, “the elderly and children should limit prolonged exertion,” according to DEEP.
In an interview last week, Dr. Richard Krinsky, a pulmonology specialist at Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington, said he was getting a lot of calls from people with nasal congestion and patients with lung conditions that were exacerbated.
“The particulates that are coming, they’re small diameter and they can get into the lower respiratory tree,” where they irritate the respiratory lining as well as the nasal mucus membrane, he said.
How is smoke traveling from out west reaching Connecticut?
The jet stream is pulling smoke from the wildfires from west to east.
“What’s west is going to come east,” explained Lessor. If a fire were burning on the East Coast, “it would take a lot to get to the West Coast, because it’d be going over the Atlantic and Europe and Asia.”
The smoke has blanketed the country from west to east, causing air quality alerts down the Eastern Seaboard and throughout much of the Northeast.
What can you do?
Experts say to stay hydrated and avoid strenuous exercise or activities outside.
Air conditioning is also important “not necessarily for the cold, but because of the filtering,” Krinsky said.
As for masks, which most people have thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says cloth masks offer little protection against wildfire smoke.
Cloth masks prevent the spread of the virus by catching respiratory droplets that contain the virus. “They might not catch small, harmful particles in smoke that can harm your health,” the CDC’s website says.
Respirator masks, such as N95 or KN95 masks, can provide protection. The CDC said N95 masks should be reserved for health care personnel.
KN95s are made in China and are similar to the N95 masks used in the United States. Alongside cloth masks, they’ve become commonplace during the pandemic and may be useful against wildfire smoke.
“Anything that’s going to reduce the particulate burden that enters your body’s going to be helpful,” Krinsky said. “But you have to balance that against the fact that really restrictive masks in the hot, humid air” are hard to tolerate.
He also recommended residents set their car’s climate control system to recirculate in order to filter out as much particulate as possible, especially when driving through hazy areas.