Iowa & Illinois, This Is How To Stay Safe During Bad Air Quality
The Canadian wildfires are still burning north of us and for some areas, it's impacting the air quality.
Just recently in the QCA, we noticed that the skies were pretty hazy as the wildfires burn north of the border. In parts of Iowa today, the air quality is listed as just fair. For Illinois, Chicago is particularly hazy according to ABC7 Chicago, and air quality reads in several parts of the state are checking in as 'moderate'.
As you're out and about, don't be surprised if you come across some patches of thick haze.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the wildfires are going to stop in Canada anytime soon so we could be dealing with spotty air quality quite a few times this summer.
Ways To Stay Safe When Air Quality Sucks
AirNow has several steps you can follow to help yourself stay safe whenever the air quality is less than great.
- Stay indoors in an area with filtered air (twist my arm to stay inside in the A/C during the summer)
- Consider an air purifier
- Keep your activity levels low. Watch TV, read, or do something that won't make you breathe heavily on days that the air quality is poor.
- Mask up (Popsugar recommends wearing a mask a la Covid if you have to be out in the gross air)
- Keep windows closed
- Don't smoke or have an indoor fire
This can all be hard to do if you have to get out to work or can't actually park it in front of an air purifier all day. But if the wildfires keep up, we could need some of these tips for poor air quality days around here.