If you're using a window air conditioner, make sure the seal between it and the window is as tight as possible and figure out how to close the outdoor air damper.If your system has a fresh air intake, set the system to recirculate mode or close the outdoor intake damper. If you have a central air conditioning system, use high efficiency filters to capture fine particles from the smoke.Avoid using candles, gas, propane, wood-burning stoves, fireplaces, or aerosol sprays and don’t fry or broil meat, smoke tobacco products or vacuum.Set up a portable air cleaner or a filter to keep the air in this room clean even if it’s smoky in the rest of the building and outdoors.Use fans and air conditioning to stay cool.Choose a room you can close off from outside air. Most importantly, try to keep the smoke outside. People with asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), heart disease, who are pregnant and children and responders are especially at risk.īreathing in the smoke can cause almost immediate effects such as coughing, trouble breathing, wheezing, asthma attacks, stinging eyes, scratchy throat, runny nose and irritated sinuses, headaches, being tired, chest pain and a fast heartbeat. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), wildfire smoke is a mix of gases and fine particles that can make anyone sick. WHAT YOU SHOULD DO Follow the advice of local officials regarding the air quality where you live and work. In the last 40 years, the number of acres burned by wildfires has more than tripled. In the U.S., wildfire seasons are lasting longer, and fires are becoming more frequent and aggressive. More frequent and intense disasters are ravaging communities and upending lives as a result of our changing climate. Reports indicate as many as 13 states have issued the air quality alerts due to the thick smoke and fine particles in the air which are hazardous to breathe. In addition, dry and windy weather has led to the start of wildfires in areas not as familiar with them, adding to the poor air conditions which stretch from New England as far south as the Carolinas. These alerts mean the air outside people’s homes is unhealthy. Smoke from wildfires burning in Canada is moving into parts of the U.S., setting off air quality alerts for millions of people in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and parts of the Southeast.
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