Minnesota's Air Quality Alert for Monday has now been extended after expectations were the air quality would be improving on Monday.
More than 80 active wildfires burning across Canada right now are sending smoke into Minnesota and Wisconsin. That smoke is prompting the state's first air quality alert of the year.
It will now been in effect until 11:00 p.m. Monday night for southern Minnesota and that does include the Twin Cities.
While the original alert included the entire state, the air quality to the north of the Twin Cities has improved enough to cancel the alert.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is recommending that people limit outdoor activity.
(Image: Minnesota Pollution Control Agency)
Poor air quality impacts health. Fine particle pollution from wildfire smoke can irritate eyes, nose, and throat, and cause coughing, chest tightness, shortness of breath, dizziness, or fatigue. Smoke particles are small enough that they can be breathed deeply into lungs and enter the bloodstream.
This can lead to illnesses such as bronchitis or aggravate existing chronic heart and lung diseases, triggering heart palpitations, asthma attacks, heart attacks, and strokes. Certain groups experience health effects from unhealthy air quality sooner than others, either because they are more sensitive to fine particle pollution or because they are exposed to larger amounts of it.
