The air across all of New York went bad enough on July 16 that three state agencies scheduled an emergency media briefing to talk about it, and the forecast for the New York City metro area, the one that covers Bushwick, was rated “Unhealthy.”
That is according to a press release from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, which said it would hold a media availability over Zoom at 1:15 p.m. that afternoon alongside the state Department of Health and the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services. The three agencies said they would discuss “the impacts and State’s response to smoke from wildfires in Canada and high temperatures that are creating unhealthy air conditions in New York.”
The DEC’s air quality forecast that day broke the state into tiers. The New York City metro region, the Lower Hudson Valley, and Long Island were all rated “Unhealthy.” Upstate had it worse: the Eastern Lake Ontario, Central New York, and Western New York regions were rated “Very Unhealthy,” the tier above. The rest of the state landed at “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups.”
Those labels come from the Air Quality Index. “Unhealthy” is the level at which the general public, not just people with asthma or heart conditions, can start feeling health effects. “Very Unhealthy” is the tier where health warnings apply to everyone.
The cause, per the DEC, was the same combination that has blanketed the Northeast in recent summers: smoke drifting down from wildfires burning in Canada, layered on top of high temperatures.
The press release listed Jeff Wernick of the DEC Press Office as the contact. It did not spell out what specific steps the state was taking in response, what health guidance was going to residents in the affected regions, or how long the bad air was expected to last.
The DEC directs residents who want ongoing air quality updates to its channels on Facebook and Instagram.
Featured image: Bushwick Daily image
