The capital of the United States and the suburbs of the neighboring states of Maryland and Virginia have been in Code Red for air pollution since Wednesday night with a new cloud of smoke from the fires moving from Canada towards the United States.
The government monitoring center for air quality, AirNow, warned this Thursday that the conditions are “harmful to health”; The real-time interactive map also shows some areas near the Canadian border that are coded purple, signifying a severe threat to the respiratory system.
The new cloud of smoke seems to be moving towards the coast, so the calls to the population in this densely populated strip of the country are to take protection measures into account, especially for “people with lung problems, the elderly, and children” .
The general recommendation is to reduce outdoor exposure as much as possible, “keep doors and windows closed” and limit “outdoor activities.”
With the polluting cloud that remained for half a week at the beginning of June, experts recommended taking the authorities’ warnings seriously because a visible cloud of pollution is an indicator of solid particles floating in the environment.
The cloud of smoke considerably reduces visibility on the horizon, from the Potomac River that divides Washington, DC and the state of Virginia and the cloud could be caught this morning that reduces visibility to a few miles.
Pulmonologist Luis Ruiz, of Kaiser Permanente’s Capitol Hill Medical Center in Washington, told the VOA that from the outset all vulnerable people and with basic diseases can have their situation complicated with the levels of contamination registered as on this day.
The specialist recommended that the general population take these alerts into account and take care of the most vulnerable people. “People can feel a bit of a problem with breathing,” said the specialist. Pictures of “cough and throat irritation” can also occur; this could be as an immediate effect from the exposure or they can also appear after the fact.
The VOA consulted with several experts in the first emergency, who recommended that “those who already have breathing problems, such as asthmatics” should stay indoors and with doors and windows closed to avoid complications.
As reported by The Washington Post, Code Red will remain throughout this Thursday over the US Mid-Atlantic and in some regions pollution could worsen to Code Purple on the scale that goes from green to brown.
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