AMERICANS have been told to avoid driving as part of a surprising warning issued for several states.
And those who couldn’t avoid hitting the road were warned to avoid letting their car idle when stationary.
GettyDrivers have been urged to avoid using their cars and not to idle (stock image)[/caption]Air quality alerts were issued for parts of at least 10 states on Thursday, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and Maryland were also under advisories.
An alert was in place for DC too, triggered by ground-level ozone buildup.
In Minnesota, more than half the state was affected by smoke drifting from Canadian wildfires.
Officials said the smoke caused fine particle levels to spike into the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” category, Newsweek reported.
“Reduce vehicle trips and vehicle idling as much as possible,” the Minnesota alert read.
People were also asked to avoid outdoor burning and other pollution-causing activities.
In Phoenix, Arizona, a high ozone pollution advisory was issued by the Department of Environmental Quality.
Officials blamed local weather patterns and rising ozone levels for the spike in pollution.
“Drive less, bike, walk, or work from home,” residents told the Mirror US.
Ozone is known to trigger breathing problems in kids, the elderly, and those with existing conditions.
AccuWeather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said ozone forms through chemical reactions in hot, sunny conditions.
“When air is stagnant, pollutants don’t get dispersed, allowing ozone to build up to unhealthy levels,” he told Newsweek.
He warned urban areas are especially at risk due to higher emissions from vehicles and power plants.
States Under Air Quality Alerts
New York New Jersey Pennsylvania Virginia Maryland Ohio Indiana Wisconsin Minnesota Montana Washington, D.C. (District of Columbia) Arizona (Phoenix area – ozone advisory)Children are particularly vulnerable because their lungs are still developing, a health expert warned.
“Their trajectory can be deviated so they don’t actually achieve their maximum lung function,” Professor Jonathan Grigg said.
Grigg said air pollution worsens asthma and is linked to earlier death from heart and lung disease.
Ohio officials also flagged fine particle pollution in an alert.
“If you are in the sensitive groups category of children, the elderly and those with breathing difficulties, please monitor your activity,” the advisory read.
Idling engines add to the problem, spewing harmful emissions like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide into the air.
These chemicals have been tied to asthma, heart disease, and lung cancer.
An idling engine can produce up to double the emissions of a moving vehicle.
According to researchers, an idling car releases enough pollutants to fill 150 balloons every minute.
Cutting just 3 minutes of idling daily per driver could slash carbon dioxide emissions by 1.4 million tons a year, Confused.com reported.
That’s the equivalent of removing 320,000 cars from the road, University College Cork found.
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