“The throat stings, the eyes burn. And people with allergies and asthma live a nightmare,” tell Clarion. In unison with the world press, the Argentine daily published photos of New York immersed in an orange haze, opaque and worrying, which the sun itself had difficulty piercing.
“Visibility in the Big Apple was almost non-existent – impossible to see such iconic landmarks as the tip of the Empire State Building, which is always visible in normal times – while the sky was tinged with a yellowish color, typical of storms sand in other latitudes”, describe The country.
Not only did the smoke darken the New York sky, it also caused numerous delays at the city’s airports and caused the cancellation of three major Broadway productions and a women’s basketball game between the Yankees and the Liberty. .
But above all it has propelled air quality indices to toxic levels “dangerous”never reached in the city, “the worst since the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began measuring air quality in 1999”, observe The New York Times. As of Wednesday evening, New York had the worst air quality of any major city in the world, ahead of Delhi.
New York wasn’t the only one affected: USA Today underlines that in total “more than 100 million people were affected on Wednesday by [la dégradation de] air quality” In “the northeastern United States, from Chicago in the West to Atlanta in the South”.
A “smoky” summer?
American public health authorities have increased “warnings, asking people to stay indoors, not open windows, turn off air exchangers and avoid strenuous activities outdoors,” while “Recess and outdoor activities have been suspended at many East Coast schools”, reports Radio-Canada.
At New York, The Guardian also noticed the return of masks, “which many residents had put away since the end of the Covid pandemic”.
The poor air quality has also prompted the New York State Department of Labor to “encourage employers to restrict outdoor activity”in order to limit the exposure of employees in sectors such as “agriculture, construction, gardening or highway maintenance”, REMARK The Washington Post. Ultimately, the decision nevertheless rests with the employers, the State of New York not offering legal protection to workers exposed to fires, unlike California or Oregon, specifies the daily.
Canada is currently battling more than 400 forest fires, the most violent being concentrated in Quebec, in the east of the country. Until they are brought under control, they will continue to fill the sky with ash and smoke, and the New York authorities “expect the situation to last several days”, relieving The Wall Street Journal.
And this is perhaps only the beginning, warns the economic daily: “Canadian authorities have warned that the country is bracing for the most destructive fire season in its history this year. In other words, Americans could be in for a smoky summer.”
2023-06-08 07:00:00
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