As of the time I wrote this column (Sunday, June 11 at 7:30 a.m.), it was reported by the City of Philadelphia Department of Public Health that air quality is acceptable in the city at this time.
However, there may still be a risk for some people, particularly those who are unusually sensitive to air pollution. Members of sensitive groups may still experience health effects. The general public is less likely to be affected. Overall, residents should use their heads. If you know you have respiratory concerns, take it easy for another day or two. If you are healthy and don’t have such issues as asthma, having to be on oxygen, or things like that, you should be able to proceed with your normal activities indoors or outside. Looks like the worst of the poor air quality concerns we’ve been experiencing for more than a week now have all but dissipated. The problem for us along the east coast was that we were getting the aftermath of forest fires in Canada.
When I hosted my radio program, The Allegheny West Radio Show, on WWDB/AM, Wednesday, May 31, 2023, at 8:00 a.m., before I even went to interview my first guest, I reported about Philadelphia being under a code orange warning for air quality. That was May 31. A week later, on June 7, to come back on the air at the radio station and give the same report again, only this time, the report indicated Philadelphia was under a code red alert for poor air quality, which was very concerning. Also, a major difference on June 7, was that when I stepped out of my home to head to the radio station, there was a dark cloud covering the skies, only it wasn’t cloudy. It was smoke from the fires in Canada. Everything sort of felt and looked surreal. The air, all around Philadelphia and in the suburbs, smelled like there was a fire right down the street or something. It was crazy.
At this time, June 7 and June 8, residents were being warned to stay indoors if they could, and to keep their windows closed because of the poor air quality.
Here we go again with another life experience–the likes of which many of us citizens never saw or lived through before.
To tell you the truth, I started having concerns for the citizens of Philadelphia on May 31 when the first reports about the poor air quality started coming out. I thought most about people with respiratory concerns. I wondered about our children in school and going out to play at recess time. These were issues that came up in my mind within the first couple of days after the May 31 alerts went out to the public. I kept waiting to see or hear about a press conference from our city’s top leaders, giving the public more details. And, of course, our very top leader would be the Mayor, Jim Kenney.
It wasn’t until June 8 that Mayor Kenney, the Health Commissioner for the City of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Public Schools Superintendent Tony Watlington, and other City officials finally talked to residents about the air quality crisis. I’m just wondering what took them so long to figure out that our children shouldn’t be going to school, shouldn’t be leaving their homes unless they had to, and that all citizens should be aware that the air quality was so threatening that none of us, not even people who don’t have respiratory issues, should just be taking walks or lollygagging outside. The air quality was that severe. But again, I say, why did it take until June 8 to decide it wasn’t safe for our kids to go to school on Friday, June 9? This air quality crisis reminds me of the recent water crisis in Philly, where it took the current Administration–what seemed like too many days before they came before the public to explain what was happening and what the city leaders were doing to keep our water safe. It’s almost as if the Administration is moving in slow motion on too many things that are critical.
Lisa Garcia, Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator for President Biden’s Administration made herself available for an interview with the SCOOP concerning the wildfires in Canada and how it’s impacted us in our own backyards. Garcia stated, “The issue is that the air quality is caused by the increase in particulate matter, which really lodges in people’s lungs. So, also messaging, especially for people with respiratory illnesses asthma, COPD, and emphysema, really needed to stay indoors during this time. The good news that we hear (and I am not a meteorologist) is that the winds and the temperature are changing, so they think by Saturday and certainly by Sunday–the air will have moved, and air quality will be improving. Of course, what we understand from Canada is that over one hundred fires are blazing in their country. The United States has sent hundreds of our firefighters up there (to Canada) to help fight the fires. The ultimate goal or the number one goal is to put out the fires.”
It was at this point in the interview that I had to ask Lisa Garcia, are the fires we’re witnessing in Canada and even closer to home, in New Jersey, a part of global warming? If the fires were not by human causes? Garcia responded this way., …
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