PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Remember over the summer when a yellow haze cloaked the area, making the air unsafe to breathe? Well, a recent study says that won’t be the last of it.
In late May and early June, thick smoke from the wildfires in Canada caused dangerous air quality conditions across the northeastern U.S. Philadelphia’s air Air Quality Index was far above the level considered “hazardous.”
People were advised to stay inside and wear masks if they had to leave their home, as the pollutants can irritate the respiratory system.
“They can get into the lungs, they can quickly be absorbed by the tissues in the lung, and people who have a history of repository illness or asthma or anything like that, this can trigger an onset of that even if you feel like you have overcome it," said Dr. Jeremy Porter, head of climate implications research at the First Street Foundation.
A recent study released by First Street, a nonprofit research and technology group that identifies climate risks across the country, projects that smoke from future wildfires will be a problem again this summer, and will only get worse over the next 30 years, bringing greater health risks.
Porter says environmental changes are causing an increase in frequency and severity of wildfires, which are driven by patterns of persistent droughts, increasing air temperatures and shifting winds.
He adds that models for the Philadelphia area project five days of unhealthy air quality annually. That number will likely increase to eight days in the next 30 years.
“It’s not as bad as the areas in the west, where we are seeing up to 90 days in some areas,” Porter said.
Porter says air quality is reaching levels from before the Clean Air Act was enacted in 1963, which he notes is concerning.
For more information on the “Atrocious Air” study, click here.