Air quality at dangerous levels

SANDUSKY — A large swath of the U.S., including Ohio and the Sandusky area, is experiencing dangerous air quality conditions amid ongoing Canadian wildfires. As of Wednesday afternoon, the federal government's airnow.gov air quality tracker listed the parts of the Sandusky area in both the red color-coded "unhealthy" and purple color-coded "very unhealthy" range of its air quality index. In Sandusky, the air smelled of smoke, and a cloudy haze hung in the sky. "There's particularly poor air quality ... over southern Wisconsin, Illinois, central Indiana and also another area over southeast Michigan, Detroit and northeast Ohio around Cleveland," National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Jackson told the Associated Press. "This is particularly thick smoke." Ohio health officials warned people to limit their time outdoors, especially people with health conditions who are susceptible to airborne particulate spread by the wildfires. Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, director of the state health department, said Wednesday that the bad air should catch everyone's attention. "It is important to take poor air quality seriously, as exposure to smoke can cause health problems," Vanderhoff said. "Certain groups of people are at higher risk, such as those with chronic heart or lung disease, children, the elderly and pregnant women. Please take precautions until these conditions improve." The main problem caused by the wildfires is particulates. They're microscopic particles of soot that can be inhaled into the lungs and can irritate organs such as eyes, noses and throats. The air pollution can cause coughing, shortness of breath and chest pain and can make chronic lung and heart problems worse. The Ohio Department of Health said people should take these precautions when venturing outdoors: • Spend time in a room you can close off from outside air • Avoid using candles, gas, propane, wood-burning stoves, fireplaces and aerosol sprays; Smoking tobacco products and vacuuming may worsen indoor air pollution. • If you have a central air conditioning system, use high-efficiency filters to capture fine particles from smoke. If your system has a fresh air intake, set the system to recirculate mode or close the outdoor intake damper. • Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water; If your eyes, nose or throat are irritated, running a humidifier may provide some relief. • It also is important to check in on anyone who is more at risk and to carefully monitor children. • Those with asthma are encouraged to carefully follow your asthma action plan if you have one. Make sure you have enough medication for several days. • Those with heart disease or COPD should pay close attention to symptoms such as chest pain or tightness, a fast heartbeat, feeling more out of breath than usual or extreme fatigue. Contact your doctor, or if symptoms are severe, call 911. Wildfires burn Across Canada, about 500 fires are burning, with about half of them considered to be out of control. The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reported Monday that roughly 29,400 square miles of land including forests have burned across Canada since Jan. 1. That exceeds the previous record set in 1989 of about 29,200 square miles, according to the National Forestry Database. Some wet weather in Quebec gave firefighters a chance to get ahead of some of the flames, but there hasn't been enough rain to extinguish the wildfires. Environment Canada meteorologist Simon Legault said he expects rain to stop falling by Wednesday morning in the regions most affected by forest fires. Many of the fires burning in Canada are in Quebec and Ontario, nearer to North America's most populated areas than western wilderness areas. The Associated Press contributed to this story.