Chicago area under air quality alert due to Canadian wildfire smoke

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Chicago area is under an air quality alert Thursday due to the Canadian wildfire smoke.

Environmental officials said the pollutants from the smoke will be sticking around the area through at least Thursday.

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The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency declared an "Air Pollution Action Day" for the greater Chicago area until midnight on Thursday, with special attention to those most vulnerable, including children, the elderly and pregnant women.

"If you can see it, guess what? You're breathing it in, so we have to be careful," said Dr. Juanita Mora, National Medical Spokesperson for the American Lung Association.

Children, and those with pulmonary or respiratory diseases such as asthma, are recommended to limit their time outdoors.

"For those group of patients or people, we recommend that they avoid being outdoors right now because that can create some potential breathing problems, particularly for people who have lung disease or heart disease," said Dr. Momen Wahidi, a Northwestern Medicine Pulmonologist.

The alert was in effect for northern and northeast Illinois and Northwest Indiana.

A tracker with the latest updates on air quality levels for areas across the state can be found on the AirNow government website.

The warning is a result of the smoke from Canadian wildfires, bringing potentially dangerous pollutants with it to the Midwest.

"When a warning like this comes out of the air quality control, we have to think, there's two things going on, one, is particle pollution and the other, is ozone pollution that's also occurring," Dr. Mora said.

Health experts said those with underlying heart and lung issues should stay on top of their daily medications and to stay indoors.

"Staying indoors means having your doors closed, your windows closed, purifiers or HEPA filters on because we're trying to clear the air," Dr. Mora said.

Doctors also recommended for people to wear a mask if they have to be outside as the haze lingers, and when they get home, make sure to change clothes, shower, and do whatever possible to get any pollutants off.

Conditions at ground level are unhealthy in Midwest

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's AirNow map showed a swath of red for "unhealthy" conditions across the eastern half Minnesota into western Wisconsin and northern Iowa. The map also showed purple for "very unhealthy" across much of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, where the Air Quality Index numbers of 250 and were common, though conditions started to improve slightly by late morning.

The Air Quality Index - AQI - measures how clean or polluted the air is, focusing on health effects that might be experienced within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. It is based on ground-level ozone, particle pollution, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Particulates are the main issue from the fires

The index ranges from green, where the air quality is satisfactory and air pollution poses little or no risk, to maroon, which is considered hazardous. That level comes with health warnings of emergency conditions where everyone is more likely to be affected, according to AirNow.

The Canadian fire situation

Canada is having another bad wildfire season, and more than 27,000 people in three provinces have been forced to evacuate. Most of the smoke reaching the American Midwest has been coming from fires northwest of the provincial capital of Winnipeg in Manitoba.

Winnipeg hotels opened Monday to evacuees. More than 17,000 Manitoba residents have been displaced since last week, including 5,000 residents of the community of Flin Flon, nearly 400 miles (645 kilometers) northwest of Winnipeg. In neighboring Saskatchewan, 2,500 residents of the town of La Ronge were ordered to flee Monday, on top of more than 8,000 in the province who had been evacuated earlier.

In Saskatoon, where the premiers of Canada's provinces and the country's prime minister met Monday, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said all of Canada has come together to help the Prairie provinces.

Two people were killed by a wildfire in mid-May in Lac du Bonnet, northeast of Winnipeg.

Canada's worst-ever wildfire season was in 2023. It choked much of North America with dangerous smoke for months.

The Associated Press contributed to this report, including: Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan, and Scott McFetridge in Des Moines, Iowa.