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As smoke from hundreds of Canadian wildfires continues to spread across large parts of North America, bringing hazardous air to tens of millions of people, outdoor activities are being canceled, businesses disrupted and vulnerable residents are being kept indoors as officials warn the unhealthy conditions will likely persist.
Air quality alerts were issued across more than 20 US states as smoke from wildfires burning in south-central Canada, northern Ontario and parts of Minnesota drifted south. About 109 million Americans across the midwest, mid-Atlantic and north-east experienced unhealthy air this week.
For many Canadians, however, the smoke has become an increasingly familiar part of summer. With hundreds of fires still burning in Canada, forecasters warned smoke could continue affecting communities on both sides of the border in the coming days.
“Much of the coverage focuses on the US, but multimillions of Canadians are faring as badly or worse,” said Tenille Bonoguore, who lives in Waterloo, Ontario. “In a country where we get through winter by anticipating summer, we are locked indoors gazing at hazy streets visibly full of smoke.”
Bonoguore said families are increasingly being faced with a dangerous decision; the choice between keeping windows open during hot weather or closing them to keep smoke out.
“Those without air conditioning have the battle of choosing between dealing with heat or smoke,” she said. “For many of us, this is the second or third or fourth summer facing these conditions that were nowhere near normal even just a decade ago.”
The smoke is coming from more than 180 active wildfires burning across northern Ontario, part of another intense Canadian wildfire season that has repeatedly sent smoke across the international border.
The deteriorating conditions have also hit workers whose jobs cannot simply move indoors. In Hamilton, Ontario, self-employed carpenter Ted Brearley said the smoke has forced him to reduce work hours and send employees home.
“My business has experienced a huge loss in production,” Brearley said. “Sending staff home early and then losing hours and pay as well.”
He questioned whether governments have invested enough in wildfire response.
“With wildfires getting worse and worse, year after year, why is our government not stepping up to the plate?” he said. “Freebies don’t help when I can’t breathe, can’t work, or can’t feed my family or keep a roof over my head.”
South of the border, residents who made even brief trips outside described air conditions as noxious. Chicago recorded the world’s worst air quality on Thursday evening, according to IQAir’s global rankings, with Detroit and Minneapolis also ranking among the most polluted cities.
In Skokie, Illinois, 26-year-old student Zeff said the smoke carried a pungent chemical smell.
“The air stinks of burnt plastic, like it’s been poisoned,” he said. “It’s impossible to take a deep breath without my nose and throat burning.”
He said the ominous haze has settled over neighborhoods throughout the day.
“There’s a mirage hanging on the treetops, white fog blanketing everything in the distance,” he said. “Everybody I speak to voices a profound, resigned hopelessness.”
Vlad, a data engineer who has lived in Chicago for two decades, said he had never experienced conditions this severe. Concerned about his son, who has asthma, Vlad said he has kept him indoors and plans to replace his home’s HVAC filter and buy an indoor air quality monitor.
“This is the worst it’s been in Chicago since I moved here 20 years ago,” he said. “If you go outside, you can taste the air, and it tastes toxic. My body is actively trying to tell me this is not good to breathe.”
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As the smoke spread farther east, communities began altering daily routines to limit outdoor exposure. The smoke had stretched into New York, where orange skies and the smell of smoke lingered over the city.
In Farmington Hills, Michigan, children’s librarian Michelle Stiennon moved an outdoor story time event inside as conditions deteriorated, joking that the event had become a “story-time apocalypse”.
“Our library also made N95 masks available to staff and the public,” Stiennon said. She added that attendance remained high early in the day before the smoke intensified.
“I was surprised by how many kids showed up, but it seemed parents were using us as their one activity before sheltering at home,” she said. “We were mostly empty after one [o’clock], when the smoke started to really thicken.”
She also described the pressure on local hospitals. “A co-worker accompanied a sick family member to the hospital for an unrelated illness,” she said. “She said the hospital was slammed with patients, mostly for asthma or breathing issues. It was a five-hour wait for a bed.”
Health officials have repeatedly warned that wildfire smoke can worsen asthma, heart disease and other respiratory illnesses, particularly among children, older adults and those with underlying medical conditions.
Those impacts are already being felt in Baltimore, Maryland where smoke pushed air quality into the “very unhealthy” range early Friday.
“My own breathing has been affected by the poor air quality levels due to wildfires in Canada,” said Charlotte Watts, a primary care physician in Baltimore. “The respiratory health of my patient population is also significantly affected.”
She said many of her patients have little choice but to remain inside, but not everyone has access to clean indoor air.
“A lot of them are relegated to spending more time indoors due to the worsening respiratory symptoms when they exit their homes,” Watts said. “But many of my patients don’t have adequate air filters or air-conditioning to keep them safe at home.”
Watts said that at this point, with wildfires and the climate crisis becoming increasingly difficult to overcome, she has become “primarily concerned with the future habitable nature of this earth”, adding that she believes “corporations and governments don’t really care about the health of their populations”.
“Maybe they all think that they’re going to go to outer space and live in sci-fi colonies,” Watts said. “But it’s all a pipe dream.”
