Canada fires trigger air quality alerts in upper US

Wildfire smoke chokes Edmonton, Canada, in 2023

Air pollution from wildfires is considered particularly dangerous because tiny particles in smoke "are small enough to reach deep inside the lungs"

(Image credit: Artur Widak / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US

published 14 May 2024

What happened

Several states across the northern U.S. were placed under air quality alerts on Monday as smoke from dozens of wildfires burning throughout western Canada pushed south.

More than 140 active fires in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories have burned at least half a million acres this spring, much of it "over the past week," AccuWeather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said. In the U.S., fine particle levels tied to the wildfire smoke are "expected to reach the red air quality index (AQI) category, a level considered unhealthy for everyone" in southern Minnesota, said the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Similar alerts were in effect across Montana, the Dakotas and Wisconsin.

Air pollution from wildfires is considered particularly dangerous because tiny particles in smoke, "about 4% of the diameter of an average human hair, are small enough to reach deep inside the lungs," NBC News said.

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Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.