Hundreds of fires ravaging eastern Canada have spread clouds of smoke since Wednesday.dangerous pollutionthroughout much of the eastern United States, and this Thursday, as the situation persists, authorities issued warnings about air quality in a wide swath of the country.
Big cities like Philadelphia, Washington and New York woke up this Thursday to unhealthy levels of air pollution, a day after New York recorded its worst air quality readings in decades, the experts said.media.
Although conditions in some parts of the Northeast were expected to be better than the previous day, unhealthy air is currently spreading across a growing portion of the country.
In New York, an orange haze covered the city's skyline and enveloped iconic monuments such as the Statue of Liberty.
Zoos moved their animals inside the facilities and flights have been interrupted.
Other locations in the US, including large areas of the Midwest and South, are also under alert.
The source of the smoke is an outbreak of fires in eastern Canada, which have forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.
According topress, early this Thursday some 250 uncontrolled fires were burning in the east of the country, 150 of them in Quebec.
Authorities in cities on both sides of the border warned of the threat of smoke, which has forced some people to don masks in a grim reminder of the pandemic conditions of recent years.
The governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, announced that this Thursday one million masks will be distributed among residents.
"This is a temporary situation. This is not Covid," he said at a press conference, where he added that New York City buses and trains have high-quality air filtration systems that turn them into means of transportation. insurance.
In much of the United States, people have been warned not to exercise outdoors and to minimize their exposure to smoke as much as possible, as the air poses immediate and long-term health risks.
New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli highlighted the risk that poor air quality poses to young children.
"Children are especially at risk. This is because they breathe more air relative to their size," he said, adding that asthma preventive medications and rescue inhalers should be kept on hand.
In Canada, on the other hand, the country is preparing for the worst season of forest firesnever recorded.
Experts point to a warmer, drier than normal spring as the cause of this trend, and these conditions are expected to continue into the summer.
At this time, more than 3.8 million hectares have already been burned in Canada, an area 12 times larger than the ten-year average for this time of year.
More than 600 American firefighters were sent to that country to help local authorities.
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