Monday, August 24, 2020

California's air quality is worse than India's. That's not good in a pandemic

 

SAN FRANCISCO – Kevin Galvin, a water conservation administrator who lives in the Oakland foothills, woke up Monday morning to “dry, smoky air with ash in it,” and the house smelled like the site of a campfire.

Millions of his fellow Californians were breathing in that same harmful air.

The hundreds of wildfires ravaging the state, especially the northern and central parts, have badly deteriorated the air quality over large swaths when residents are already at a high risk of pulmonary disease because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Most, if not all, major urban areas in California have been affected by poor air over the past week," the California Air Resources Board told USA TODAY, and the highest level of PM2.5 – fine particles that can reach deep into the lungs – were registered in Santa Cruz County and the Monterey Bay region.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/08/24/california-wildfires-air-quality-increasingly-unhealthy/3431014001/

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