New York City has the worst air quality of any major city in the world right now
Stewart Perrie
Featured Image Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo
New York City is being choked by smoke that has drifted south from raging wildfires in Canada.
People have been encouraged to wear face masks, pull out their air purifiers and close their windows to avoid being affected by the smog that hangs over the city.
A thick orange haze hangs over NYC and it has earned a title no place ever wants to achieve.
According to IQAir, New York City has the worst air quality of any major city in the world right now.
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The site says the current state of the air quality is 'unhealthy' for every single person and the PM2.5 concentration is currently 24.9 times the World Health Organization's annual air quality guideline value.
PM2.5 concentration is the fine particulate matter that is in the air, and the smoke that is lingering as a result of the wildfires is significant.
The New York Times highlights why this number is a cause for concern when it starts to climb.
"Microscopic particles that are about one-fifth to one-thirtieth as wide as a human hair can travel deep into your lungs and even into your bloodstream," an article reads.
It added that if these nasty particles make their way into your body then it 'can cause inflammation and dampen your immune system'.
Great, just great.
Just a few days ago, NYC was enjoying an air quality index (AQI) of around 15.
That is considered in the good range.
However, after the smoke drifted south from Canada, that AQI has risen to a shocking 187.
The AQI is predicted to decrease tomorrow (June 7) to around 105 and that means the breathing air is only unhealthy for 'sensitive groups'.
It's estimated to fall into the yellow 'moderate' range over the coming days.
Canada is currently dealing with hundreds of wildfires, with the majority being concentrated to land north of Ottawa.
Katrina Eyk, a senior meteorologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, said a lot of the smoke in the country is moving from Quebec across southern Ontario.
“It’s still pretty yucky out there,” she said.
“But on Thursday, it looks like with the wind overall shifting to the northeast, that plume could move directly overtop of the Greater Toronto Area and give pretty poor conditions.”