STOW — Massachusetts fire and environmental leaders are reminding residents to use caution, care, and common sense if they plan to burn certain agricultural waste during open burning season, which began Thursday and runs until May 1.
State Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine, Commissioner Bonnie Heiple of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and Chief Fire Warden David Celino of the Department of Conservation and Recreation said restrictions on open burning are imposed at the state and local levels.
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The map shows fine particle pollution (PM2.5) in an area of the Golden State—including Mammoth Lakes, Whitmore Hot Springs, and Mono Hot Springs—has reached an “unhealthy” level, according to the Air Quality Index (AQI).
The EPA warns that when “unhealthy” levels of PM2.5 are recorded, people in sensitive groups—which include older adults, children, and those with existing health conditions—are especially at risk of triggering or worsening health conditions, such as asthma or lung or heart problems. They should, therefore, take steps to avoid exposure to outdoor air by “avoiding all long or intense outdoor activities.”
Everyone else should “reduce long or intense activities” and take more breaks.
The AQI is a standardized scale of between 0 and 500 that measures and categorizes the quality of air across the U.S. into six groups:
Good: Scores between 0 and 50—air quality is considered satisfactory, and there are no concerns about pollution.
Moderate: Scores between 51 and 100—air quality is acceptable; however, individuals unusually sensitive to particle pollution may experience minor effects.
Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups: Scores between 101 and 150—members of sensitive groups may be affected and should limit exposure.
Unhealthy: Scores between 151 and 200—everyone may begin to experience health effects, with sensitive groups at greater risk.
Very Unhealthy: Scores between 201 and 300—health warnings apply to everyone. Sensitive groups should avoid all outdoor activity, and others should limit prolonged or strenuous outdoor activities.
Hazardous: Scores between 301 and 500—serious health warnings for the entire population. Everyone should avoid all outdoor activities.
What Is PM2.5 and Where Does It Come From?
PM2.5 refers to tiny, inhalable particles of pollution measuring 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter—smaller than a strand of hair. These particles can be unknowingly inhaled, penetrating deep into the lungs and even entering the bloodstream. Exposure can trigger symptoms ranging from mild eye, nose, and throat irritation to chest tightness or shortness of breath. In severe cases, it may lead to serious health conditions and hospitalization.
PM2.5 can come from a variety of sources, including dust from unpaved roads, smoke from wildfires or smokestacks, or emissions from vehicles and power or industrial plants.
Near the refrigerator, the lead level was 27 times the federal limit. And that wasn’t all.
Jeff Van Ness is constantly cleaning.
Every day, he vacuums, mops and wipes every surface in his house, which stands on one of the blocks in Altadena, Calif., that survived the flames of the Los Angeles wildfires, but not the smoke.
He works in deliberate lines across the kitchen tile, then along the baseboards, then into the corners where the smoke pooled nearly a year ago — following a map only he can see.
It’s the only way to quiet his thoughts: Is it safe for his children, 6-year-old Sylvia and 9-year-old Milo, to walk barefoot on the kitchen tiles? Should he wash the toys they drop on the floor with bleach, or with soap and water? The darkest thoughts are about his wife, Cathlene Pineda, 41, a jazz pianist who is on medication for cancer. If the toxins were in the house, he wonders, could they bring the cancer back?
The family reluctantly returned home in August, eight months after the Los Angeles fires and two months after a consultant they hired found lead — a dangerous neurotoxin — inside the house. After their insurer, Farmers Insurance, dismissed those findings and cut off payments for their hotel, the Van Nesses had little choice but to return and do the only thing they could: clean.
“We don’t have the means to pay our mortgage and live somewhere else,” said Mr. Van Ness, 44, a waiter at a five-star hotel. “It’s a feeling of helplessness that is indescribable.”
Lead level in the dining area: 7 times the federal limit
Source: New York Times testing from Sept. 26Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times
For nearly every house reduced to ash by the fires that blackened the Los Angeles sky last January, another was left standing but steeped in smoke, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
These homes sit at an uncomfortable juncture: intact but potentially contaminated.
Like most insurance policies in California, the Van Nesses’ contract with Farmers — the second largest home insurer in the state — covers smoke damage, but it doesn’t spell out how the damage should be repaired. That’s because there are no state or federal standards for how an insurer should remediate a smoke-damaged home after a fire. In May, the California Department of Insurance created a task force to establish such standards, but until its recommendations are announced, families like the Van Nesses are caught in a regulatory no man’s land.
A growing body of research shows that smoke from urban wildfires, like the ones that engulfed Altadena and Pacific Palisades, is more dangerous than smoke produced when vegetation alone burns. Ordinary objects become poisons when extreme heat turns them into gases. The button you push to start your car often contains beryllium — harmless when sealed in metal but highly toxic once airborne. A car’s tires can melt into a cloud of benzene, as can the foam in a sofa. The handle of a kitchen faucet can give off chromium.
Microscopic particles carried by the smoke slip into a home’s insulation, lodge in the seams of hardwood floors and pass through the mesh in kitchen tiles, contaminating the space with carcinogens and other toxins. Industrial hygienists and toxicologists insist that removing the contamination requires tearing out nearly every surface the smoke touched — not just the insulation, but the hardwood floors, tiles, plaster and stucco.
By contrast, the insurance industry is relying on what experts interviewed by The Times describe as outdated or incomplete research, endorsing cleanups based only on what can be seen and smelled. If insurers test at all, it is for a small subset of contaminants.
According to more than two dozen scientists, insurance adjusters and consumer advocates interviewed for this article, as well as a review of thousands of pages of internal insurer documents, this approach is supported by a small roster of industry consultants who cite research papers that have not been peer-reviewed, or were funded by the insurance industry.
“We call it the tobacco playbook because it was done for so long and so successfully by an industry that was making a deadly product,” said David Michaels, who served as the assistant secretary of labor directing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from 2009 to 2017, and who has written two books detailing this strategy. “This is absolutely the latest iteration of ‘science for hire.’”
The Exposure
To understand what happened to the Van Ness home and whether it was safe to return over the summer, The Times asked the family for permission to have a certified professional test for lead and other heavy metals in each room, and to submit strands of hair so scientists could measure family members’ exposure to these metals over time.
Jan. 8: Smoke from the Eaton fire looming over the Van Ness home.Photo by Jeff Van Ness
By then, the house had already been extensively cleaned.
In February, a contractor hired by the family carried out the remediation that Farmers Insurance had recommended: The attic insulation was ripped out, floors were vacuumed and mopped, countertops and other surfaces were wiped, carpets and drapes were laundered and air scrubbers were left roaring in every room.
Feb. 18: Furniture wrapped in plastic during the remediation.Composite image from video taken by Jeff Van Ness
By March, dangerous chemicals were being found inside neighboring homes. But Farmers’ tests concluded that the Van Ness house was safe inside, finding hazardous levels of lead only outdoors.
Those findings were contradicted by an independent test the family paid for in June, which showed lead above the federal threshold in the living room and in the attic — results that Farmers dismissed. That was when Mr. Van Ness repainted the walls and began his obsessive cleaning.
The readings commissioned by The Times were taken in September — a month after the family had moved back in — and allowed reporters to see whether the home remained contaminated, and whether the Van Nesses had been exposed to harmful substances.
Six of the 11 samples collected in the house showed unsafe levels of contaminants, including extremely high levels of lead which is known to metabolize quickly, leaving the blood and entering bones and tissue. No metals were found in the other five samples taken from the bedrooms, the living room, the piano and a wooden toy.
Sept. 26: Where testing by The Times found lead and other metals after the house was remediated.
Source: New York Times testing from Sept. 26
The readings showed 27 times the federal hazard limit of lead on the floor next to the refrigerator, and more than seven times the limit where the kitchen tile meets the dining room floor.
A sample taken from the HVAC in the attic found lead levels close to 8,000 micrograms per square foot. Although the Environmental Protection Agency does not set lead-dust standards for attic surfaces, a rule change passed during the Biden administration holds that any reportable level of lead dust inside a home is considered a hazard. The concentrations found in the attic were “sky high,” said Joe L. Nieusma, a toxicologist who was one of 10 experts who reviewed the results.
“There are multiple carcinogens in the house and extremely high levels of lead,” Dr. Nieusma said. “It’s not safe for humans — or animals — to live in that residence.”
To determine whether the toxins inside the Van Ness home had made their way into their bodies, The Times commissioned Manish Arora, vice chairman of environmental medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and the creator of a technology that uses strands of hair to measure a person’s exposure to chemicals in the environment.
One centimeter of hair represents approximately one month in a person’s life.
“Every other test is like a snapshot,” Dr. Arora told the family, explaining why their blood tests were negative. “Hair has the ability to map back in time. It’s like a molecular movie.”
After reviewing the family’s hair samples, Dr. Arora concluded that the Van Nesses had been exposed to dangerous levels of toxins.
Each family member’s strand of hair showed “measurable spikes in heavy metals after they returned to the home in August, indicating a period of elevated exposure,” he said. The results revealed that Milo had elevated levels of all 11 chemicals that Dr. Arora’s lab tested for, including lead, a potent neurotoxin with no safe level of exposure in children. Sylvia’s hair showed elevated levels of nine chemicals compared with the exposure levels of 1,000 children in California who are participants in an ongoing statewide study funded by the National Institutes of Health.
But he also found that the continued cleaning was working — at least for lead. For both parents and children, the levels of lead in their hair began to decline after they returned home and as they steadily moved bags of contaminated belongings to the curb and Mr. Van Ness continued his compulsive cleaning.
The presence of these metals does not mean the family will necessarily become ill, Dr. Arora, the founder and chief executive of LinusBio, which analyzed the hair, cautioned. “But it does show that their bodies absorbed contaminants during that period, exposure that scientists associate with increased risks of neurological and developmental harm and, in the case of arsenic, cancer,” he said.
All 10 experts who reviewed the testing results from the house expressed concern about the level of contamination and said that the insurance-led remediation effort was not sufficient. Several of them highlighted the risk in the attic, where testing by The Times detected beryllium, chromium and cadmium, all known to cause cancer in humans.
Especially concerning is beryllium, said Dr. Michaels, who issued the standard for beryllium during his tenure as the longest-serving administrator of OSHA. “There is no safe level of beryllium exposure,” he said, describing how, at the Department of Energy, an accountant had developed the debilitating lung condition known as chronic beryllium disease after handling files stored in a building where beryllium had been processed years before.
“The most shocking thing is that this is after the home was remediated,” said Joseph G. Allen, the director of the Healthy Buildings Program at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a former scientific adviser to the White House, who reviewed the results.
“Junk Science”
What happened to the Van Ness family is unfolding across the Los Angeles basin, as homeowners navigate a narrow range of options: accept a modest cleanup or shoulder the cost themselves. Or, most fraught of all: move back in and accept their insurers’ assurances that the air is breathable, the walls are clean and the home is safe, according to responses to a Times survey of more than 500 survivors of the recent fire, as well as interviews with three dozen affected families.
For nearly every house destroyed by the fires, another was left standing but steeped in smoke, according to a Times analysis.Philip Cheung for The New York Times
Evidence showing that the remediation approved by insurers is inadequate is mounting: Data from 45 homes tested after professional cleaning showed that 43 of them still tested positive for unsafe levels of lead, according to Eaton Fire Residents United, a coalition of concerned residents.
Farmers ultimately paid for the Van Ness family’s hotel accommodation for seven months and approved a budget of $25,900 to have the home professionally cleaned — a fraction of what it would have cost to follow the advice of experts who insisted that the only way to remove the contaminants was to strip away every surface the smoke touched. That kind of renovation would have cost upward of $500,000, according to data from the real estate tracking firm Cotality.
Scale those numbers across the Los Angeles burn zone, and the math is staggering: Doing only a surface-level cleanup of the nearly 10,000 homes that likely had smoke damage would save insurers over $8.5 billion, according to a Times analysis using Cotality data.
“The first commandment of an insurance company is, ‘Pay as little as possible and as late as possible,’” said John Garamendi, a Democratic congressman who represents Northern California and who was the state’s first insurance commissioner in 1991.
Dylan Schaffer, a lawyer who is representing more than 500 policyholders whose homes were damaged by toxic smoke from the Los Angeles fires, agreed that the insurers are driven by the bottom line. “There is no other explanation. The science is against them.”
It was when the Van Nesses started asking about the science that they ran into problems with Farmers.
Ms. Pineda was diagnosed with cancer five years ago, leaving her immunocompromised.Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times
Five years ago, Ms. Pineda was diagnosed with Stage 3B cancer. Concerned that she could be exposed to carcinogens inside her house after the fire, her oncologist wrote a letter to Farmers urging the insurer to replace all the soft goods — including mattresses, bedding and carpets — according to correspondence reviewed by The Times.
The adjuster texted back: “Did the oncologist perform any type of testing of these soft goods to support their recommendation?”
The question landed like a blow — as though her doctor’s warning didn’t count unless it came with results from the very tests the family had asked the insurer to perform.
“It felt like when you have those dreams that something’s happening,” she said, “and you’re screaming at the top of your lungs in your dream to wake someone up or to alert someone, and nothing is coming out.”
In California, insurers began trying to limit payouts for smoke damage more than a decade ago, after a series of devastating wildfires, according to Dave Jones, a former state insurance commissioner who was the top regulator when carriers first started inserting policy language that excluded toxic smoke.
When those exclusions were struck down in court, the carriers turned to something more subtle: They downplayed the science by relying on in-house experts, whose studies are often not peer-reviewed and whose methods are increasingly at odds with the emerging science of urban wildfires, according to interviews with two former insurance commissioners, insurance industry whistleblowers, attorneys and consumer advocates.
The initial settlement letter that Farmers sent to the Van Nesses, which was reviewed by The Times, referred to “scientific studies” that it said showed that household materials exposed to the smoke could be cleaned. According to these studies, it said, soot, char and ash have “no inherent physical or chemical properties that will cause physical damage to common household materials,” and that “routine laundering” and “everyday cleaning methods” were enough to restore the home to its pre-fire state.
In a single footnote, the letter referred to only one source: a three-page paper from 2019. It appeared on the website of a private company specializing in hazardous materials that once employed Richard L. Wade, the paper’s author.
Contacted by The Times, Dr. Wade confirmed that the document was never published nor peer-reviewed and described it not as a study but as “a research summary,” contradicting how Farmers characterized it.
“This report is not objective science,” said Dr. Michaels, currently a professor at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, after reviewing the paper. “It makes unsupported and unverifiable assertions,” he said, adding, “It’s science for hire.”
Dr. Wade did not respond to questions regarding the criticism of his research paper.
In an email, Luis Sahagun, a spokesman for Farmers Insurance, wrote: “Every claim is evaluated and reviewed on an individual basis. Our goal is to pay claims quickly and fairly, taking into account the circumstances of the loss and the terms of the policy.”
The company did not address detailed questions from The Times about the contamination found inside the Van Ness home after the insurer-led remediation, or about the carcinogens detected in the family’s hair, saying that “we cannot comment on individual claims or customers.”
Jeff Van Ness is nervous about turning on the HVAC which sits inside a contaminated attic. So he opens the window.Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times
When the family sent their independent results to Farmers in June, the insurer turned to Safeguard EnviroGroup, a company that is advising the leading insurance carriers in California following the fires, and whose principal scientist is Dr. Wade, the expert whose paper was not peer-reviewed but was used as a reference.
In a document labeled “confidential” and obtained by The Times, Safeguard EnviroGroup’s founder, Brad Kovar, sought to discredit the family’s independent report, writing that the hygienist hired by the Van Nesses lacked a particular license, and that the report — which found the highest levels of lead in the attic — had failed to specify whether the samples came from a floor, a shelf or a windowsill, each of which has a different regulatory threshold.
In their denial letter to the family, Farmers, citing the report by Safeguard EnviroGroup, further described the attic as a “non-habitable space” — the only explanation the insurer provided for never having tested the attic for contaminants.
But in response to a detailed list of questions, a spokesman for Mr. Kovar seemed to contradict that guidance, saying that “all non-habitable spaces are relevant if they meet established contamination thresholds and provide pathways of exposure.”
The spokesman added: “Our conclusions are based on fact, data, established methodologies and recognized scientific standards.”
Dr. Nieusma pointed out that the HVAC is in the attic and acts as the “lungs of the house.” If the attic is contaminated, the HVAC is likely redistributing those toxic particles throughout the home.
“What they are doing is junk science,” said Dr. Zahid Hussain, winner of the Department of Energy Secretary’s distinguished service award for his work at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, adding that references to empty or unvetted studies are rife in the insurance industry when it comes to smoke.
The (Lack of) Standards
The Van Ness home, along with the debate over what the family’s insurer should have done to repair it, is a microcosm of a broader fight now dividing the American Industrial Hygiene Association, which publishes a technical guide for how to remediate smoke damage. In the absence of state or federal standards, insurers have cited this guide, which lists Mr. Kovar and Dr. Wade among its authors.
But a cohort of industrial hygienists say the guide has been hijacked by insurance industry contractors who have introduced language suggesting that toxins can be cleaned using everyday methods. This summer, the hygienists submitted to the A.I.H.A. a list of what they said were errors and distortions in the latest edition of the guide, arguing it should be retracted or significantly revised.
They said that numerous non peer-reviewed research papers had been added as references in the bibliography, while peer-reviewed studies showing that microscopic particles of smoke can penetrate the fibers of a house were removed or omitted.
On Dec. 16, the debate turned tense on a video call during which the A.I.H.A. declined to make changes, according to three participants on the call.
In an emailed statement, Jessie Lewis, an A.I.H.A. spokeswoman, declined to discuss the specifics of the meeting, saying that the technical guide was a “science-based publication” and that the most recent edition was not influenced by the insurance industry. She had no comment after The Times pointed out that the organization’s top donors included the Property Casualty Insurance Association of America, one of the main lobbying groups for the insurance industry.
The same battle is now roiling the newly created California Smoke Claims & Remediation Task Force, where Safeguard EnviroGroup employees including Dr. Wade presented slides claiming that professional cleaning was enough and that testing for anything more than lead, asbestos and soot, char and ash was an unnecessary “rabbit hole,” as first reported in a San Francisco Chronicle investigation. They argued that the A.I.H.A. guide — the same one that scientists are asking to be retracted — should be the accepted standard.
Back in Altadena, the Van Nesses are trying to make their home feel like home again.Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times
Since returning to their house in August, the Van Nesses have debated leaving for good. But where would they go?
Mr. Van Ness’s job provides the health insurance needed for his wife’s continuing cancer treatment with the oncologist who saved her life. And on his waiter’s salary, they feel trapped in one of the country’s most strained housing markets.
“It’s free-falling while reaching for branches that you hope will break your fall but don’t,” he said. “And so you flail. You paint, you rack up debt and get rid of the things that you think are dangerous, you keep windows open, you wash your hands more,” he said. “And you worry that your efforts are no match for what really needs to happen.”
For now, the Van Nesses are doing what they can: fighting with their insurer. And cleaning.
Methodology
Sample collection – With the family’s permission, The Times commissioned certified professionals and scientists to collect samples from the house and the family. Eleven wipe samples were taken from the house, including the attic and the family’s converted garage, using the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s 9102 sampling method: seven samples and one blank for lead; four samples and one blank for a broader metals panel. Additionally, air samples were collected using equipment from Access Sensor Technologies and Casella Solutions.
The Times commissioned an independent lab, Eurofins, to analyze the results, and the professional hired by The Times followed strict chain-of-custody procedures, documenting each step in the collection, handling and transfer of the samples to ensure their integrity and prevent contamination or tampering.
Lab analysis – For the wipe samples, the lab used Inductively Coupled Plasma (I.C.P.) Mass Spectrometry (M.S.), modifying the N.I.O.S.H. 9102 protocol to use a more precise analytical method, a step recommended by scientific advisors and senior researchers at the lab. Air samples were analyzed using three common analytical methods: I.C.P.-M.S., I.C.P.-Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (A.E.S.), and X-ray Fluorescence (X.R.F) Spectroscopy. The air samples were analyzed by Thomas Reilly, chief executive officer at Access Sensor Technologies, a company that makes portable technology measuring contaminants in the air; the analysis yielded inconclusive results. Experts agreed that detecting metals in the air would be difficult when collecting samples months after the fires, because the family ventilated the home and used air purifiers.
For the hair analysis, the samples were sent to LinusBio, the lab funded and led by Manish Arora.
Results – Ten experts reviewed the lab results commissioned by The Times and compared them with the tests conducted by the contractor chosen by Farmers Insurance.
Dr. Joseph G. Allen, a certified industrial hygienist and an associate professor of exposure assessment science at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he heads its Healthy Buildings Program.
Dawn Bolstad-Johnson, a certified industrial hygienist who has tested more than 100 homes in the Los Angeles area.
Dr. Jill Johnston, an associate professor at the University of California at Irvine’s Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health whose research focuses on the health impacts of environmental contaminants.
Jeanine Humphrey, an industrial hygienist who has tested more than 100 smoke-damaged homes in Los Angeles.
Dr. Zahid Hussain, a former division deputy of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the recipient of the Department of Energy Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award.
Dr. Lisa A. Maier, a pulmonologist who leads a clinical team studying and caring for patients with chronic beryllium disease as chief of National Jewish Health’s Division of Environmental and Occupational Sciences.
Peggy Mroz, lead epidemiologist in the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at National Jewish Health, who studies chronic beryllium disease.
Dr. Joe L. Nieusma, a toxicologist and author of a recent study showing that particles of smoke saturate every crevice, seam and texture of a home and are recirculated through airflow.
Dr. Michael Weitzman, a professor and former chairman of the department of pediatrics at the New York University School of Medicine, whose research on lead poisoning in children contributed to the decision by the E.P.A. to lower its dust lead clearance levels.
One expert asked not to be named because of fear of retaliation.
The following chemicals were detected in the home via wipe samples: lead, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, lithium and manganese. Some of these elements are naturally occurring in the body, but when found in extremely high concentrations they are harmful to human health and linked to neurological and developmental problems, as well as damage to specific organs, including the kidneys.
For surface wipe samples, the post-abatement federal hazard limit for lead is 5 µg/ft2 for floors, 40 µg/ft2 for window sills and 100 µg/ft2 for window troughs.
The following chemicals were found in the hair analysis at elevated levels when compared with median exposure levels of 1,000 children in California who are participants in an ongoing statewide study funded by the National Institutes of Health: zinc, strontium, phosphorus, manganese, magnesium, lithium, lead, copper, calcium, barium and arsenic.
Estimating damage from smoke – To estimate the number of homes that were likely smoke-damaged, The Times drew a 250-yard buffer around structures identified by Cal Fire as partially burned. This buffer was chosen based on the public health advisory issued by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health after the fires. It is a conservative measure: A National Academy of Sciences report stated that any property within one to 10 kilometers from a burned structure could be damaged by smoke, depending on the direction of the wind.
To estimate the $8.5 billion in savings for insurers to remediate the homes that have likely experienced smoke damage, The Times counted the homes within 250 yards of a burned structure. When a property had additional structures, like a guesthouse or a garage, the structures were all counted as one. For each property, The Times used a median cost of remodeling, excluding demolition — a metric provided by Cotality, a company that tracks and analyzes real estate.
Why hair sampling and not blood? –To date, 99.5 percent of residents tested by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health following the recent fires — all but 10 out of more than 2,000 people — had blood lead levels below the Centers for Disease Control’s ceiling of 3.5 micrograms per deciliter, meaning almost no one showed elevated levels despite widespread evidence of lead contamination. The Times turned to the technology created by Dr. Arora which uses hair strands because it maps past exposure over time.
The European Commission plans to restrict exports of aluminum scrap amid concerns that rising outflows of the resource could leave Europe short of a critical input for its decarbonization efforts.
“We are launching the preparatory work on a new measure to address the issue of aluminium scrap leakage,” said EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic at the European Aluminum Summit on Tuesday.
European Union environment ministers agreed to a watered-down version of the bloc’s 2040 climate goals on Wednesday, bringing the EU one step closer to setting new—if weaker—targets for lowering carbon emissions.
Ministers adopted a number of climate-focused policies, including a legally-binding target to slash the EU’s collective emissions by 90% by 2040 from 1990 levels.
Suggestions that fireworks to mark Diwali may have contributed to soaring air pollution in India’s capital are being dismissed online as complaints from “fake” Muslims, with social media posts piling on by falsely claiming an old video shows “real Muslims” celebrating the Hindu festival of lights in Saudi Arabia. The video in fact shows celebrations for the UAE’s national day in December 2023.
“In Saudi Arabia, real Muslims are celebrating Diwali with great enthusiasm, bursting firecrackers; meanwhile in India, fake ones are fuming about Diwali firecrackers,” reads the caption of a Facebook video shared on October 21, 2025.
The video, which has been viewed more than 32,000 times, shows groups of people on the street watching an elaborate fireworks display.
It circulated as Diwali celebrations were linked to the Indian capital’s air pollution crisis — a link Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa pushed back against and described to the Asian News International (ANI) news agency as a politically motivated attempt to ban Hindu religious practices (archived link).
The link has also been rejected online, with people making the association labelled as anti-Hindu or Muslim.
According to monitoring organisation IQAir, toxic air in the Indian capital Delhi did spike following the Diwali celebrations — hitting more than 56 times the UN health limit just after the peak of the bursting fireworks early on October 21 (archived link).
Screenshot of the false Facebook post captured on October 31, 2025, with a red X added by AFP
The video was also shared in similar Facebook, Instagram, Threads and X posts, with comments indicating users believed it showed a Diwali celebration in Saudi Arabia.
“How wonderful Diwali is celebrated in Saudi Arabia but Muslims in India hate Diwali,” read one such comment.
But the video in fact shows a celebration of the United Arab Emirates’ national day in Abu Dhabi.
Its caption reads, “UAE 52 National Day Celebration 2023”.
Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the December 2023 YouTube video (right)
An analysis of the video by an AFP journalist reporting on the Middle East also uncovered other elements indicating the video was filmed in the United Arab Emirates, including a photo of the country’s President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on a car and a falcon emblem — a symbol of the country — above the number “52” on a lamp post.
Screenshot of falsely shared video, with the UAE president’s photo, a falcon emblem and the number “52” highlighted by AFP
Subsequent keyword searches led to a statement about the installation of decorative pieces by Abu Dhabi City Municipality to celebrate the United Arab Emirates’ 52nd Union Day on December 2, 2023 (archived link).
Screenshot of the statement on the Abu Dhabi City Municipality website
According to the statement, the decorations were placed along notable locations, including “Abu Dhabi Corniche Street”.
Street level imagery available on the KartaView platform shows the falsely shared video corresponds to the intersection of Corniche Street and Mubarak Bin Mohammed Street in Abu Dhabi (archived link).
Screenshot of the video in the false post (L) and Street level imagery available on the KartaView platform, similarities highlighted by AFP
Thousands of people in Oregon have been urged to stay indoors amid concerns over high air pollution levels.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) AirNow map, which provides a real-time snapshot of air quality, showed that air pollution levels around Sweet Home, north-east of Eugene, are in the unhealthy range on Friday morning.
The warnings mean that the risk of negative health effects from air pollution are increased for the general public, as well as vulnerable populations.
Why It Matters
Air pollution poses significant health risks to the general public, in particular for the young, seniors and vulnerable populations such as those with underlying respiratory or cardiovascular conditions.
The EPA warned on its website: “Some members of the general public may experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects.”
“Active children and adults, and people with lung disease, such as asthma, should avoid prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors. Everyone else, especially children, should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors.”
Across the country, wildfire fighters work for weeks at a time in poisonous smoke.
Across the country, wildfire fighters work for weeks at a time in poisonous smoke.
The government says they are protected.
The government says they are protected.
We tested the air at one fire to find out why they are still dying.
We tested the air at one fire to find out why they are still dying.
Across the country, wildfire fighters work for weeks at a time in poisonous smoke.
Across the country, wildfire fighters work for weeks at a time in poisonous smoke.
The government says they are protected.
The government says they are protected.
We tested the air at one fire to find out why they are still dying.
We tested the air at one fire to find out why they are still dying.
It’s July and the Green fire is tearing through Northern California. An elite federal firefighting crew called the La Grande Hotshots has been sent to help. The 24-person crew has been working for days on the front lines, where invisible toxins hide in the thick haze.
More than 1,000 firefighters are on the fire. Several crews, including the La Grande Hotshots, are trying to contain the flames by building a trench of bare earth that will stretch from a road to a river bank. They’re doing this at night, in hopes that the cooler air will tamp down the smoke.
The crew knows that they’re risking their health.
The La Grande hotshots on assignment this summer.
La Grande Hotshots
One longtime member died last year after being diagnosed at 40 with brain cancer. A former crew leader is being treated for both leukemia and lymphoma diagnosed in his 40s. Another colleague was recently told that he has the lungs of a lifelong chainsmoker.
Wildfire fighters nationwide are getting sick and dying at young ages, The New York Times hasreported. The federal government acknowledges that the job is linked to lung disease, heart damage and more than a dozen kinds of cancer.
Casey Budlong, a La Grande Hotshot, died of cancer in 2024 after fighting fires for two decades. He left behind an 8-year-old son.
Katy Budlong
But the U.S. Forest Service, which employs thousands of firefighters, has for decades ignored recommendations from its own scientists to monitor the conditions at the fire line and limit shifts when the air becomes unsafe.
To find out how harmful the air gets on an average-size wildfire, Times reporters brought sensors to the Green fire this summer. We tracked levels of some of the most lethal particles in the air, called PM2.5, which are so tiny that they can enter the bloodstream and cause lasting damage.
Readings above 225.5 micrograms per cubic meter are considered hazardous. On the fire line, levels regularly exceeded 500.
The fire began on July 1 after a lightning storm passed over the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
The fire began on July 1 after a lightning storm passed over the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
By July 16, much of the area was shrouded in smoke.
By July 16, much of the area was shrouded in smoke.
Around 6 p.m., the La Grande Hotshots started their shift and set off toward the fire line.
Capt. Nick Schramm, a crew leader, assumed the air was reasonably safe. He has done this work for nearly two decades, and like most firefighters, he often has coughing fits after long shifts. But he believes that exposure to hazardous air is unavoidable.
“That’s just the harsh truth,” he said later.
As climate change makes fire seasons worse, several states have tried to shield outdoor workers from wildfire smoke, which can contain poisons like arsenic, benzene and lead. California now requires employers to monitor air quality during fires, and to provide breaks and masks when the air turns unhealthy.
But these rules don’t apply on the wildfires themselves, because state agencies and private companies successfully argued that those constraints would get in the way of fighting fires.
Until recently, federal firefighters weren’t even allowed to wear masks on the job. Masks are now provided, but they are still banned during the most arduous work, closest to the fire. The Forest Service says face coverings could cause heatstroke, though wildland firefighters in other countries regularly use masks without this problem.
As crews descended the ridge toward the fire line, the levels of toxic particles nearly doubled.
As crews descended the ridge toward the fire line, the levels of toxic particles nearly doubled.
Firefighters say that during their shifts they worry more about immediate dangers — falling trees, burns, sharp tools — than about smoke exposure. As the La Grande crew hiked down the steep terrain, Lily Barnes, a squad leader, concentrated on keeping her footing.
Back home in the off-season, she sometimes wonders what the smoke is doing to her body, she said in an interview. “Maybe I’ll realize one day I shouldn’t have been doing this work.”
The handbook issued to Forest Service crews has 10 words of guidance for smoke exposure on the fire line: “If needed, rotate resources in and out of smoky areas.” The agency declined to comment for this story, but in the past has told The Times that while exposure cannot be completely eliminated, rotating crews helps limit risk.
In practice, according to interviews with hundreds of firefighters, workers feel as though they are sent into smoke and then forgotten. Over months of reporting, Times journalists never saw a boss pull a crew back because of exposure.
Even experienced supervisors can’t tell exactly how unhealthy the air is just by looking.
Chuy Elguezabal, the La Grande superintendent, says he pulls his crews out of smoke when it becomes impossible for them to work — when they cannot see or breathe, or they are overcome by headaches and coughing fits.
On the Green fire, he said, the smoke seemed like more of an inconvenience, like the 105-degree daytime heat or the poison oak that had given many of the firefighters weeping sores.
Since the 1990s, Forest Service researchers have suggested giving crews wearable air sensors, but the agency hasn’t done it. Other dangerous workplaces, like coal mines, have long been required to monitor airborne hazards.
On the Green fire, The Times used a device that weighs as much as a deck of cards and costs about $200.
Last year, firefighters wore the same devices during a small federal research project to measure their exposure. For hours, those readings stayed at 1,000 — as high as the monitors go — according to Zach Kiehl, a consultant who worked on the project.
Mr. Kiehl said that ideally, crews would be issued monitors to know when to put on masks or pull back from a smoky area. “You can pay now and prevent future cases, or pay out later when a person is losing a husband or a father,” he said.
The firefighters believe that the decision to work at night has paid off: The smoke occasionally got thick, but didn’t seem bad compared with other fires they have worked. They think the exposure was fleeting.
In fact, the monitors show, the air was never safe.
Methodology
To measure particulate concentrations at the Green fire, The Times followed U.S. Forest Service crews and carried two Atmotube PRO sensors. These portable, inexpensive monitors are the same as those the Forest Service has tested in the field.
We consulted with Dr. Aishah Shittu, an environmental health scientist, and Dr. Jim McQuaid, an atmospheric scientist, both from the University of Leeds. They are co-authors of a study showing that Atmotube Pro sensors demonstrated good performance for measuring fine particulate matter concentrations despite being a fraction of the size of reference-grade models. We also developed our approach in consultation with experts from the Interior Department and the Forest Service.
On the Green fire, the sensors recorded minute-by-minute averages of airborne particles that are 2.5 micrometers in diameter or smaller. The Times then matched these readings with timestamps and locations from a satellite-enabled GPS watch.
Generally, the harm associated with PM2.5 levels is calculated based on a 24-hour average. Here, for near-real-time monitoring on the fire line, we followed the guidance of Drs. Shittu and McQuaid by first averaging the readings from the two sensors and then calculating a 15-minute rolling average.
Using those figures, we categorized the health risks of PM2.5 exposure according to standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. We used standards meant for the public because there are no federal occupational standards for wildfire smoke exposure.
After averaging, our data had a correlation coefficient of 0.98 and a mean coefficient of variation between the two sensors of 7.5 percent. The E.P.A. recommends that PM2.5 air measurements have a correlation coefficient of at least 0.7 and a mean coefficient of variation less than 30 percent. Our correlation and variance measures gave us confidence that the sensors were largely in agreement.
The 3-D base map in this article uses Google’s Photorealistic 3D Tiles, which draw from the following sources to create the tiles: Google; Airbus; Landsat / Copernicus; Data SIO, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO; IBCAO.
Across the country, wildfire fighters work for weeks at a time in poisonous smoke.
Across the country, wildfire fighters work for weeks at a time in poisonous smoke.
The government says they are protected.
The government says they are protected.
We tested the air at one fire to find out why they are still dying.
We tested the air at one fire to find out why they are still dying.
Across the country, wildfire fighters work for weeks at a time in poisonous smoke.
Across the country, wildfire fighters work for weeks at a time in poisonous smoke.
The government says they are protected.
The government says they are protected.
We tested the air at one fire to find out why they are still dying.
We tested the air at one fire to find out why they are still dying.
It’s July and the Green fire is tearing through Northern California. An elite federal firefighting crew called the La Grande Hotshots has been sent to help. The 24-person crew has been working for days on the front lines, where invisible toxins hide in the thick haze.
More than 1,000 firefighters are on the fire. Several crews, including the La Grande Hotshots, are trying to contain the flames by building a trench of bare earth that will stretch from a road to a river bank. They’re doing this at night, in hopes that the cooler air will tamp down the smoke.
The crew knows that they’re risking their health.
The La Grande hotshots on assignment this summer.
La Grande Hotshots
One longtime member died last year after being diagnosed at 40 with brain cancer. A former crew leader is being treated for both leukemia and lymphoma diagnosed in his 40s. Another colleague was recently told that he has the lungs of a lifelong chainsmoker.
Wildfire fighters nationwide are getting sick and dying at young ages, The New York Times hasreported. The federal government acknowledges that the job is linked to lung disease, heart damage and more than a dozen kinds of cancer.
Casey Budlong, a La Grande Hotshot, died of cancer in 2024 after fighting fires for two decades. He left behind an 8-year-old son.
Katy Budlong
But the U.S. Forest Service, which employs thousands of firefighters, has for decades ignored recommendations from its own scientists to monitor the conditions at the fire line and limit shifts when the air becomes unsafe.
To find out how harmful the air gets on an average-size wildfire, Times reporters brought sensors to the Green fire this summer. We tracked levels of some of the most lethal particles in the air, called PM2.5, which are so tiny that they can enter the bloodstream and cause lasting damage.
Readings above 225.5 micrograms per cubic meter are considered hazardous. On the fire line, levels regularly exceeded 500.
The fire began on July 1 after a lightning storm passed over the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
The fire began on July 1 after a lightning storm passed over the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
By July 16, much of the area was shrouded in smoke.
By July 16, much of the area was shrouded in smoke.
Around 6 p.m., the La Grande Hotshots started their shift and set off toward the fire line.
Capt. Nick Schramm, a crew leader, assumed the air was reasonably safe. He has done this work for nearly two decades, and like most firefighters, he often has coughing fits after long shifts. But he believes that exposure to hazardous air is unavoidable.
“That’s just the harsh truth,” he said later.
As climate change makes fire seasons worse, several states have tried to shield outdoor workers from wildfire smoke, which can contain poisons like arsenic, benzene and lead. California now requires employers to monitor air quality during fires, and to provide breaks and masks when the air turns unhealthy.
But these rules don’t apply on the wildfires themselves, because state agencies and private companies successfully argued that those constraints would get in the way of fighting fires.
Until recently, federal firefighters weren’t even allowed to wear masks on the job. Masks are now provided, but they are still banned during the most arduous work, closest to the fire. The Forest Service says face coverings could cause heatstroke, though wildland firefighters in other countries regularly use masks without this problem.
As crews descended the ridge toward the fire line, the levels of toxic particles nearly doubled.
As crews descended the ridge toward the fire line, the levels of toxic particles nearly doubled.
Firefighters say that during their shifts they worry more about immediate dangers — falling trees, burns, sharp tools — than about smoke exposure. As the La Grande crew hiked down the steep terrain, Lily Barnes, a squad leader, concentrated on keeping her footing.
Back home in the off-season, she sometimes wonders what the smoke is doing to her body, she said in an interview. “Maybe I’ll realize one day I shouldn’t have been doing this work.”
The handbook issued to Forest Service crews has 10 words of guidance for smoke exposure on the fire line: “If needed, rotate resources in and out of smoky areas.” The agency declined to comment for this story, but in the past has told The Times that while exposure cannot be completely eliminated, rotating crews helps limit risk.
In practice, according to hundreds of firefighters, workers feel as though they are sent into smoke and then forgotten. Over months of reporting, Times journalists never saw a boss pull a crew back because of exposure.
Even experienced supervisors can’t tell exactly how unhealthy the air is just by looking.
Chuy Elguezabal, the La Grande superintendent, says he pulls his crews out of smoke when it becomes impossible for them to work — when they cannot see or breathe, or they are overcome by headaches and coughing fits.
On the Green fire, he said, the smoke seemed like more of an inconvenience, like the 105-degree daytime heat or the poison oak that had given many of the firefighters weeping sores.
Since the 1990s, Forest Service researchers have suggested giving crews wearable air sensors, but the agency hasn’t done it. Other dangerous workplaces, like coal mines, have long been required to monitor airborne hazards.
On the Green fire, The Times used a device that weighs as much as a deck of cards and costs about $200.
Last year, firefighters wore the same devices during a small federal research project to measure their exposure. For hours, those readings stayed at 1,000 — as high as the monitors go — according to Zach Kiehl, a consultant who worked on the project.
Mr. Kiehl said that ideally, crews would be issued monitors to know when to put on masks or pull back from a smoky area. “You can pay now and prevent future cases, or pay out later when a person is losing a husband or a father,” he said.
The firefighters believe that the decision to work at night has paid off: The smoke occasionally got thick, but didn’t seem bad compared with other fires they have worked. They think the exposure was fleeting.
In fact, the monitors show, the air was never safe.
Methodology
To measure particulate concentrations at the Green fire, The Times followed U.S. Forest Service crews and carried two Atmotube PRO sensors. These portable, inexpensive monitors are the same as those the Forest Service has tested in the field.
We consulted with Dr. Aishah Shittu, an environmental health scientist, and Dr. Jim McQuaid, an atmospheric scientist, both from the University of Leeds. They are co-authors of a study showing that Atmotube Pro sensors demonstrated good performance for measuring fine particulate matter concentrations despite being a fraction of the size of reference-grade models. We also developed our approach in consultation with experts from the Interior Department and the Forest Service.
On the Green fire, the sensors recorded minute-by-minute averages of airborne particles that are 2.5 micrometers in diameter or smaller. The Times then matched these readings with timestamps and locations from a satellite-enabled GPS watch.
Generally, the harm associated with PM2.5 levels is calculated based on a 24-hour average. Here, for near-real-time monitoring on the fire line, we followed the guidance of Drs. Shittu and McQuaid by first averaging the readings from the two sensors and then calculating a 15-minute rolling average.
Using those figures, we categorized the health risks of PM2.5 exposure according to standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. We used standards meant for the public because there are no federal occupational standards for wildfire smoke exposure.
After averaging, our data had a correlation coefficient of 0.98 and a mean coefficient of variation between the two sensors of 7.5 percent. The E.P.A. recommends that PM2.5 air measurements have a correlation coefficient of at least 0.7 and a mean coefficient of variation less than 30 percent. Our correlation and variance measures gave us confidence that the sensors were largely in agreement.
The 3-D base map in this article uses Google’s Photorealistic 3D Tiles, which draw from the following sources to create the tiles: Google; Airbus; Landsat / Copernicus; Data SIO, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO; IBCAO.
Indians celebrated their festival of lights with the flash and din of fireworks, casting a pall of murky pollution over the capital, New Delhi, despite a court order aimed at limiting the festivities to more environmentally friendly “green crackers.”
Why It Matters
New Delhi is one of the world’s most polluted cities, and the celebrations for the festival of Diwali herald its worst months as cooler air laden with smog is trapped over the city, reducing visibility and raising serious health risks for the more than 30 million people who live in the capital and its metropolitan region.
What To Know
The Hindu festival of Diwali marks the triumph of light over darkness and good over evil, and it is celebrated with candles and fireworks.
City authorities have tried to ban firecrackers for Diwali in recent years, but they have struggled, largely in vain, to enforce the curbs as some Hindu groups argue that the bans spoil the celebration.
This year, the Supreme Court relaxed the ban on firecrackers in the city, allowing the use of so-called green crackers, which are meant to blow up with less pollutants, for up to three hours on Sunday and Monday. Authorities said only the green crackers could be sold, and a system of QR codes was meant to ensure compliance.
But the restriction appeared to do little to keep the pollution at bay.
On Tuesday, the day after a night of Diwali celebrations, New Delhi woke up to a shroud of smog.
The Air Quality Index of 347 on Tuesday morning compared with 359 at the same time last year, NDTV reported, citing the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research.
“A thick gray haze engulfed Delhi this morning as air quality plummeted into the ‘very poor’ and ‘severe’ zones, following widespread bursting of firecrackers beyond the Supreme Court’s two-hour limit,” Indian newspaper The Pioneer wrote on X.
What People are Saying
The Pioneer reported: “The green cracker policy, meant to strike a balance between celebration and clean air, has been reduced to a hollow slogan. In the end, Delhi’s markets tell the real story, no QR codes, no awareness, no enforcement. Only the same banned crackers wrapped in new labels. The ‘green’ in this year’s Diwali is only on paper.”
Vedant Pachkande, a tourist visiting New Delhi, told the Associated Press: “I have never seen anything like this before. We can’t see anything here because of pollution.”
What Happens Next
The pollution in New Delhi is likely to get worse in coming weeks as farmers in breadbasket states around the capital burn off crop stubble in preparation for a new planting, and the “weather inversion” sets in when a layer of warm air traps cooler, polluted air over the ground.
This article uses reporting by the Associated Press.
Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing a new form of molecular architecture called metal-organic frameworks that can harvest water from desert air, capture carbon dioxide, store toxic gases or catalyze chemical reactions.
The structures, metal ions connected by carbon-based linkers, have large holes that allow other molecules to flow in and out, almost like rooms in a house. They can capture and release gases, water or other substances. Changing the size or shape of its components can make a countless amount of new frameworks designed for specific substances, reactions or to conduct electricity.
State officials expect a rise in ozone and fine particulate levels that will be unhealthy for older adults, children and people with heart or lung disease, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
The agency issued an action day alert at 4 p.m. Thursday that is set to last until at least 4 p.m. Friday. Communities covered by the alert span urban corridor from Douglas County to the south and Larimer and Weld counties to the north, including Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley.
People who are sensitive to air pollution should not spend long periods of time outside or participate in heavy exercise outdoors, state officials said.
The January wildfires left many scars on the city of Los Angeles, from rubble-reduced homes to torched abandoned vehicles. Though cleanup crews quickly cleared much of the debris, one alarming invisible impact lingered over the city for months, a new study suggests.
In late March—more than two months after the flames died out—researchers detected levels of carcinogenic hexavalent chromium (a.k.a. chromium-6) 200 times greater than baseline levels for LA air. If this pollutant sounds familiar, you’re probably thinking of the 2000 film Erin Brockovich, a dramatization of a true story about hexavalent chromium water contamination. Though the levels the researchers detected fell below certain safety thresholds, the particles’ unusually small size immediately raised concerns.
The study is currently available on the preprint server Research Square, but it has been reviewed by the LA Health Consortium, lead author Michael Kleeman, an environmental engineer at the University of California Davis, told Gizmodo in an email. Though it has yet to go through formal peer review, he and his colleagues chose to release the findings to alert policymakers and the public to this potentially hazardous pollutant as soon as possible.
In a statement to Science Magazine, the South Coast Air Quality Management District emphasized that the study’s sampling was limited and that its own data do not suggest there is an immediate health risk from hexavalent chromium.
Fire activates chromium’s toxicity
Chromium is a heavy metal that naturally occurs in soil, plants, and rocks, but it’s also present in some building materials, including stainless steel, chrome plating, pigments, and cement. In its common form, chromium III is an essential nutrient that helps the body break down fats and carbohydrates.
When oxidized, chromium III becomes toxic hexavalent chromium. Certain levels of exposure to this pollutant may increase the risk of lung, nasal, and sinus cancer, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Research has shown that fire can drive the oxidation of chromium III, and a 2023 study found that hexavalent chromium can be present in wildfire smoke and ash.
Thus, Kleeman and his colleagues expected to find hexavalent chromium when they sampled air from debris cleanup zones around the Eaton and Palisades fires. They detected concentrations ranging from 8.1 nanograms to 21.6 nanograms per cubic meter in the neighborhoods most affected by the fires: Altadena and the Pacific Palisades. This is well below the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s workplace exposure limit of 200 nanograms per cubic meter of air but above the EPA’s indoor limit of 0.1 nanogram per cubic meter.
What they didn’t expect was the puny size of the particles. “It is really surprising to find all of the hexavalent chromium in the LA fire debris cleanup zones concentrated in particles smaller than 56 nanometers,” Kleeman said.
Smaller particles, bigger hazard
The main pollutant of concern in wildfire smoke is PM2.5—hazardous particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers wide. Their size allows them to lodge themselves deep inside the lungs, causing tissue damage and inflammation. The hexavalent chromium nanoparticles Kleeman and his colleagues detected are an order of magnitude smaller.
“Nanoparticles smaller than 50 nanometers can cross cell membranes, meaning they can get deeper into our bodies than larger particles,” he explained. “Nanoparticles can circulate in our blood and get to all of our major organs.” Still, the specific health risks from hexavalent chromium nanoparticles remain uncertain. “The current findings warrant caution, but not panic,” Kleeman said.
He plans to return to Altadena and the Palisades to determine whether airborne hexavalent chromium levels have returned to normal and identify potential sources and exposure hotspots. Understanding this newly realized threat is more important than ever as global temperatures rise.
“California is in a new reality where climate change is driving wildfires into major urban areas,” Kleeman said. “We all need to work together to adapt to this new reality.”
University of Chicago researchers on Thursday released their annual Air Quality Life Index, a situational update on air pollution and how it impacts life expectancy. The AQLI report said particulate pollution “remained the greatest external threat to human life expectancy,” comparing the impact to smoking.
Researchers from the university’s Energy Policy Institute analyzed pollution data collected throughout 2023 and compared it with previous years.
Michael Greenstone, a professor at the University of Chicago who created the AQLI, told CBS News his team focused on airborne particulate matter — small particles that are able to invade and wreak havoc on the body more easily than larger ones.
The data is taken from satellite readings that refresh each year and can take time to process, which is why the latest figures date back a couple of years, Greenstone said.
While global pollution only rose slightly between 2022 and 2023, the report’s authors found that updated levels remained almost five times higher than the limit recommended by the World Health Organization to protect public safety. Local changes in air quality varied from one country to the next. The differences were particularly stark in the U.S. and Canada, where airborne particulate concentrations increased more than anywhere else.
Property and homes razed by a wildfire in Celista, British Columbia, Canada, on Saturday, Aug. 19, 2023.
Cole Burston/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“Evidence of a link between climate change, wildfire smoke, and rising particulate pollution has been increasing over the past two decades,” the authors wrote in their report, citing a recent study that found human-caused climate change “increased the likelihood of autumn wind-driven extreme wildfire events, especially in the Western U.S.”
Extreme wildfires, particularly forest fires, have become larger, more common and more intense since the beginning of this century, according to NASA.
The Canadian wildfires caused particulate concentrations in Canada to soar to levels not seen since 1998, according to the AQLI. In the U.S., the wildfires drove up pollution to levels not seen since 2011 — a 20% uptick from the levels recorded in 2022. Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Mississippi were markedly affected, with pockets of those states replacing 20 counties in California as the most polluted nationwide.
Out of 3,137 American counties, the number of locations with pollution levels above the national U.S. standard rose to 308 in 2023, up from just 12 in 2022, according to the report. Forty-eight of the counties were in Ohio, 41 were in Wisconsin, 31 were in Pennsylvania, 26 were in Indiana and 19 were in Illinois, with the remaining 143 spread across the rest of the country.
In Canada, the researchers said that 50% of residents in 2023 breathed air that contained particulates in amounts exceeding their national air quality standard. That was a sharp turnaround in the country’s progress in pursuit of cleaner air, which had resulted in particulate levels falling below the national standard in previous years, said the report’s authors, noting that particulate levels in Canada’s most polluted regions were roughly equal to those of Bolivia and Honduras, two countries that face are known to face challenges addressing air quality and pollution.
The Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories experienced the country’s worst pollution, according to the report. That reflected some of the locations of destructive wildfires that collectively burned more than 71,000 acres of land from the East to West Coasts. Smoke from those blazes permeated the atmosphere over Canada and the U.S., creating hazy, and at times, orange, skies while health posing threats to people with certain conditions.
Smoke from the Tantallon wildfire rises over houses in nearby Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada, May 28, 2023.
ERIC MARTYN / REUTERS
Wildfires scorching Canada this summer have again given rise to serious air quality concerns, for Canadians and Americans alike.
“It’s correct to think of this air pollution from the wildfires as, kind of, the ghost of fossil fuels past,” Greenstone told CBS News.
He said that the U.S. has over the last half-century made “enormous progress” toward blocking particulates generated through the burning of fossil fuels, like oil and gas, from entering the air. The AQLI credited the implementation of the Clean Air Act for reducing particulate concentrations by over 60% since 1970, which it says added 1.4 years to the life expectancy of American residents.
But the devices used to block particulates do not prevent carbon dioxide from infiltrating the atmosphere, driving up temperatures and increasing both the incidence and the severity of wildfires, Greenstone added. When trees burn in a fire, more particulates are produced and released again.
“The point we’re trying to make is that CO2 that’s released when we use fossil fuels, both historically and today, it stays up in the atmosphere for centuries, and it raises temperatures, and it will continue to for centuries,” Greenstone said. “What we’re seeing is an important consequence of that, which is, it’s going to increase the incidence of wildfires going forward. And those wildfires are causing us to breathe air that is going to cause us to lead shorter and sicker lives.”
Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She typically covers breaking news, extreme weather and issues involving social justice. Emily Mae previously wrote for outlets like the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.
Oslo —The world’s first commercial service offering carbon storage off Norway’s coast has carried out its inaugural CO2 injection into the North Sea seabed, the Northern Lights consortium operating the site said Monday.
The project by Northern Lights, which is led by oil giants Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies, involves transporting and burying CO2 captured at smokestacks across Europe. The aim is to prevent the emissions from being released into the atmosphere, and thereby help halt climate change.
“We now injected and stored the very first CO2 safely in the reservoir,” Northern Lights’ managing director Tim Heijn said in a statement. “Our ships, facilities and wells are now in operation.”
In concrete terms, after the CO2 is captured, it is liquified and transported by ship to the Oygarden terminal near Bergen on Norway’s western coast.
The liquefied CO2 (LCO2) carrier Northern Pioneer of Northern Lights is pictured at Akershuskaia, Oslo, June 17, 2025 in connection with the international high-level conference on carbon management.
STIAN LYSBERG SOLUM/NTB/AFP/Getty
It is then transferred into large tanks before being injected through a 68-mile pipeline into the seabed, at a depth of around 1.6 miles, for permanent storage.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology has been listed as a climate tool by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA), especially for reducing the CO2 footprint of industries such as cement and steel that are difficult to decarbonize.
The first CO2 injection into the Northern Lights geological reservoir was from Germany’s Heidelberg Materials cement plant in Brevik in southeastern Norway.
But CCS technology is complex, controversial and costly.
Without financial assistance, it is currently more profitable for industries to purchase “pollution permits” on the European carbon market than to pay for capturing, transporting and storing their CO2.
The Northern Lights carbon storage site in Øygarden, Norway, is seen on May 28, 2025.
The Washington Post/Getty
Northern Lights has so far signed just three commercial contracts in Europe. One is with a Yara ammonia plant in the Netherlands, another with two of Orsted’s biofuel plants in Denmark, and the third with a Stockholm Exergi thermal power plant in Sweden.
Largely financed by the Norwegian state, Northern Lights has an annual CO2 storage capacity of 1.7 million tons, which is expected to increase to 5.5 million tons by the end of the decade.
While efforts such as Northern Lights are focused on capturing carbon directly from the most highly-polluting sources — industrial smoke stacks — there have also been efforts launched to capture the gas from the ambient air, an even more controversial methodology.
Mark Jacobson, a Stanford University professor of environmental engineering, told CBS News earlier this year that he was dubious of the motivations for and the efficacy of both kinds of carbon capture, and he said bluntly that “direct air capture is not a real solution. We do not have time to waste with this useless technology.”
Jacobson thinks direct air capture, in particular, is a boondoggle, and more effort should be focused on switching to clean energy sources.
Currently, the U.S. gets about 60% of its electricity from fossil fuels.
“You have to think about who’s proposing this technology,” Jacobson said. “Who stands to benefit from carbon capture and direct air capture? It’s the fossil-fuel companies.”
“They’re just saying, ‘Well, we’re extracting as much CO2 as we’re emitting. Therefore, we should be allowed to keep polluting, keep mining,” Jacobson told CBS News, adding that his stance has not made him popular among many in the energy sector.
“Oh, yeah, diesel people hate me, gasoline people hate me, ethanol people hate me, nuclear people hate me, coal people hate me. They do, because I’m telling the truth,” he said. “We don’t need any of these technologies.”
Air pollution from oil and gas causes more than 90,000 premature deaths and sickens hundreds of thousands of people across the US each year, a new study shows, with disproportionately high impacts on communities of color.
More than 10,000 annual pre-term births are attributable to fine particulate matter from oil and gas, the authors found, also linking 216,000 annual childhood-onset asthma cases to the sector’s nitrogen dioxide emissions and 1,610 annual lifetime cancer cases to its hazardous air pollutants.
The highest number of impacts are seen in California, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, while the per-capita incidences are highest in New Jersey, Washington DC, New York, California and Maryland.
The analysis by researchers at University College London and the Stockholm Environment Institute is the first to examine the health impacts – and unequal health burdens – caused by every stage of the oil and gas supply chain, from exploration to end use.
“We’ve long known that these communities are exposed to such levels of inequitable exposure as well as health burden,” said Karn Vohra, a postdoctoral research fellow in geography at University College London, who led the paper. “We were able to just put numbers to what that looks like.”
While Indigenous and Hispanic populations are most affected by pollution from exploration, extraction, transportation and storage, Black and Asian populations are most affected by emissions from processing, refining, manufacturing, distribution and usage.
Though the latter set of activities is responsible for less air pollution overall than the former, the study shows they cause the most unequal health burden, with impacts concentrated in majority-Black areas including southern Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” and eastern Texas.
“What makes the study so valuable is how it dissects health impacts across the whole life cycle of oil and gas – from where it comes out of the ground to where it is combusted,” Timothy Donaghy, research director for the environmental group Greenpeace USA and author of previous research on the racially uneven burdens of fossil fuel pollution. “As many studies have found before, these health burdens are not shared equally – a prime example of fossil fuel racism in action.”
For the analysis, published in Science Advances on Friday, the authors developed an inventory of each stage of oil and gas production and use, with data from the federal government and the University of Colorado Boulder. They plugged that data into a computer model to track pollution from each source, and used epidemiological and health data to track the adverse impacts of those emissions.
These disproportionate impacts are not inexplicable; rather, they are attributable to historic policies such as redlining – a discriminatory mortgage appraisal practice used after the Great Depression by the US government – and high rates of permitting for oil and gas processing plants in close proximity to Black communities.
Oil and gas are responsible for a major share of all air pollution-attributable health impacts in the US, the authors also found: one in five pre-term births and adult deaths linked to fine particulate pollution are from the sector, the authors found, while a stunning 90% of new childhood asthma cases tied to nitrogen dioxide pollution are from oil and gas.
The study is based on data from 2017, the most recent year of complete data available. Between that year and 2023, US oil and gas production has increased by 40% and consumption by 8%, meaning the estimates are probably highly conservative.
The research comes as the Trump administration works to boost fossil fuel production and suppress renewable energy production.
“Given the reckless deregulation being pushed by Trump’s EPA and the president’s call to ‘drill, baby, drill’, this new study should be a flashing red warning light for the nation,” said Donaghy.
Eloise Marais, a University College London professor of geography and study co-author, said she hoped the study was “picked up by the kinds of community leaders and advocacy groups that are pushing for exposure to cleaner air”.
“If there was a move away from reliance on oil and gas, we would experience the climate change benefits 50, 100, 200 years from today because the greenhouse gases stay in the atmosphere so long,” she said. “But communities would experience the health benefits immediately.”
The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued air quality alerts in Colorado, Texas, Nevada and Wyoming for Wednesday.
The warnings mean ground-level ozone and particulate concentrations are forecast to reach dangerous levels. In some areas, the pollution comes from drifting wildfire smoke.
Why It Matters
The NWS warned that the general public as well as sensitive groups—children, seniors, and individuals with preexisting respiratory or heart conditions—might experience health effects linked to poor air quality in the affected regions.
“Increasing likelihood of respiratory symptoms and breathing discomfort in active children and adults and people with lung disease, such as asthma,” the NWS said.
“Active children and adults, and people with lung disease, such as asthma, should reduce prolonged or heavy outdoor exertion.”
People wait in a queue at a drive-thru food distribution event in Austin, Texas, in 2021. People wait in a queue at a drive-thru food distribution event in Austin, Texas, in 2021. Mario Cantu/CSM/ZUMA Wire/Cal Sport Media/AP
What To Know
In Texas, an Ozone Action Day has been issued for the Houston, Galveston and Brazoria area, and the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area on Wednesday.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) said that residents in these areas can reduce ozone pollution by “sharing a ride, walking, riding a bicycle, taking your lunch to work, avoiding drive-thru lanes, conserving energy and keeping your vehicle properly tuned.”
In Wyoming, an air quality alert for wildfire smoke has been issued until 1 p.m. on Wednesday for portions of the Bighorn Basin, Owl Creek Mountains, Bridger Mountains and Absaroka Mountains.
Wildfire smoke across the Bighorn Basin, especially from the Red Canyon Fire, as well as fires in Idaho and Nevada, will continue to spread across the region on Wednesday.
In Nevada, an Air Quality Action Day has been forecast for southwest Elko County, including Elko City, for elevated particulate matter. The air pollution is expected to be in the unhealthy for sensitive groups range.
Meanwhile in Colorado, an Ozone Action Day Alert has been issued for the Front Range Urban Corridor until 4 p.m. on Wednesday. Hot and stagnant weather will allow ozone levels to reach levels that unhealthy for sensitive groups.
“If possible, please help us reduce ozone pollution by limiting driving gas and diesel-powered vehicles until at least 4 p.m.,” the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said.
What People Are Saying
The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality said in a statement: “The Wyoming Department of Health recommends that the elderly, young children, and individuals with respiratory problems avoid excessive physical exertion and minimize outdoor activities during this time.
“Wildfire smoke is made up of a variety of pollutants, including particulate matter and ozone, which can cause respiratory health effects. Although these people are most susceptible to health impacts, the Department of Health also advises that everyone should avoid prolonged exposure to poor air quality conditions.”
Jonathan Grigg, a professor of pediatric respiratory and environmental medicine at Queen Mary University of London, previously told Newsweek that there are “very clear links” between inhaling particles and earlier death from both respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
He added: “There are vulnerable groups and classically they are children because they’ve got an extra issue to do with their lungs developing, whereas our lungs are not developing as adults.”
What Happens Next
The air quality warnings are currently set to remain in force until Wednesday afternoon in Wyoming and Colorado, and for the whole day in Texas and Nevada.
Regular updates regarding air pollution levels are issued on the NWS website and on the Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow interactive map.
For perhaps 99.99 percent of our time as a species on Earth, we lived outdoors in the natural environment. Might there be a health benefit to returning now and again, and surrounding ourselves with nature? That’s a question that urban planners have asked. “Are people living in greener areas healthier than people living in less green areas?” Should we put it in a park or another car park?
“In a greener environment, people report fewer symptoms of illness and have better perceived general health. Also, people’s mental health appears to be better”—and by a considerable amount. Indeed, “assuming a causal relation between greenspace and health, 10% more greenspace in the living environment leads to a decrease in the number of symptoms that is comparable with a decrease in age by 5 years.” That is a big assumption, though.
Still, you could imagine some potential mechanisms of why it could be. It could mean less air pollution, and air pollution is no joke. It is the fifth leading cause of death on our planet, killing about five million people a year. Though, of course, our number one risk factor is our diet, which kills twice as many individuals, as you can see below and at 1:18 in my video Are There Health Benefits of Spending Time in Nature?.
So, it could be an antipollution effect, or maybe there’s something special about experiencing greenspaces beyond them just offering more opportunities to exercise. The simplest explanation is probably that a natural setting “simply promotes health-enhancing behavior rather than having specific and direct benefits for health.” It’s harder to go jogging in the park when there is no park. Ironically, it seems that even when people have access to nature, they don’t necessarily take advantage of it. And, even if there were a link, “a question remains about the possibility of a ‘self-selection’ phenomenon: do natural environments elicit increased physical activity and well-being, or do physically active individuals choose to live in areas with more opportunities for physical activity?” What I wanted to know is, “apart from the promotion of physical activity,” are there “added benefits to health of exposure to natural environments”?
Now certainly, just being exposed to sunlight can treat things like seasonal affective disorder and provide vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, but are there any other inherent benefits? You don’t know until you put it to the test. Some of the studies are just silly, though. Consider “Relationships Between Vegetation in Student Environments and Academic Achievement Across the Continental U.S.” At first, I thought the study was about academic achievement and vegetarianism, but no—it’s about vegetation. Researchers found a “positive relationship between non-forest vegetation and graduation rates for schools.” Maybe the Ivy League’s edge is from the ivy?
The study entitled “View Through a Window May Influence Recovery from Surgery” starts to make things more interesting. As you can see below and at 3:04 in my video, some patient rooms at a suburban hospital looked out at trees, while others to a brick wall. “Twenty-three surgical patients assigned to rooms with windows looking out on a natural scene had shorter postoperative hospital stays…and took fewer potent analgesics [painkillers] than 23 matched patients in similar rooms with windows facing a brick building wall.” You can’t chalk that up to a vitamin D effect.
What could it be about just looking at trees? Maybe it is the “vitamin G”—just the color of green. We know how healthy it is to eat our greens. What about just looking at them? Researchers had people exercise while watching a video simulating going through a natural, green-colored setting, the same video in black and white, or everything tinted red, and no differences were noted (with the exception that red made people feel angry), as you can see below and at 3:46 in my video.
The most interesting mechanism that has been suggested that I’ve run across is fractals. Have you ever noticed that “for example, in a tree, all the branches—from big to small—are scaled-down versions of the entire tree”? Each branch has a shape similar to the whole tree itself. Fractal patterns are found throughout nature, where you see “a cascade of self-similar patterns over a range of magnification scales, building visual stimuli that are inherently complex.” And, as you can see when you’re hooked up to an EEG, our brain seems to like them, too.
Regardless of the mechanism, if you compile all the controlled studies on using nature as a health promotion intervention, you tend to see mostly psychological benefits, whereas the findings related to physical outcomes were less consistent. “The most common type of study outcome was self-reported measures of different emotions.” For instance, what makes you feel better: staring at a kiwifruit orchard or a building? (See below and 4:41 in my video.) Awkwardly described, thanks presumably to the language barrier, as a comparison of “synthetic versus organic stimulation.”
As you can see below and at 5:00 in my video, natural settings may make people more attentive and less sad, but when it comes to some objective measures like blood pressure, no significant effect was found. People who exercise outdoors often say they feel great, “suggesting that green exercise activities can increase…various psychological subscales,” such as “mood, focus, and energy”—within just five or so minutes of being out in the woods.
Yet these studies tended not to be randomized trials. Researchers just asked people who already sought out nature what they thought about nature, so it’s no wonder they like it—otherwise, they wouldn’t be out there. But nature-based interventions are low-cost, often free, in fact, and non-invasive (unless you count the mosquitoes). So, if you want “a natural high,” I say go for it, whatever makes you happy. (Not all green exercisers like trees. Golfers just viewed them as obstacles.)
Both operations rely on a chemical known as ethylene oxide to sterilize equipment, but the carcinogen can lead to an increased risk of lymphoid and breast cancers.
Colorado has three years to lower ground-level ozone pollution to meet federal standards, and this summer’s hazy skies — caused by oil and gas drilling, heavy vehicle traffic and wildfire smoke — are putting the state in a hole as it’s already logged more dirty air days than in all of 2023.
“Our state has taken a lot of steps to improve air quality, but you can see it in the skies, you can see it in the air, that we still have work to do,” said Kirsten Schatz, clean air advocate for the Colorado Public Interest Research Group.
Two months into the 2024 summer ozone season, the Front Range already has recorded more high ozone days than the entire summer of 2023. As of Monday, which is the most recent data available, ozone levels had exceeded federal air quality standards on 28 days. At the same point in 2023, there had been 27 high-ozone days.
The summer ozone season runs from June 1 to Aug. 31. However, the region encompassing metro Denver and the northern Front Range this year recorded its first high ozone day in May, and in some years ozone pollution exceeds federal standards into mid-September.
The first benchmark is to lower average ozone pollution to a 2008 standard of 75 parts per billion. The northern Front Range is in what’s called “severe non-attainment” for that number, meaning motorists must use a more expensive blend of gasoline during the summer and more businesses must apply for federal permits that regulate how much pollution they spill into the air.
The second benchmark requires the region to lower its average ozone pollution to a 2015 standard of 70 parts per billion, considered the most acceptable level of air pollution for human health. In July, the EPA downgraded the northern Front Range to be in serious violation of that standard as the region’s ozone level now sits at 81 parts per billion. The state must now submit to the EPA a new plan for lowering emissions.
Colorado needs to meet both EPA benchmarks by 2027, or it will be downgraded again and face more federal regulation.
Of the 28 days the state has recorded high ozone pollution levels, 17 exceeded the 2008 standard of 70 parts per billion, according to data compiled by the Regional Air Quality Council, an organization that advises the state on how to reduce air pollution.
That’s bad news for the region after state air regulators predicted Colorado would be able to meet that standard by the 2027 deadline. The EPA calculates average ozone pollution levels on a three-year average, so this summer’s bad numbers will drag down the final grade.
“It’s not a good first year to have,” said Mike Silverstein, the air quality council’s executive director.
Smoke from wildfires near and far
Ground-level ozone pollution forms on hot summer days when volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides react in the sunlight. Those compounds and gases are released by oil and gas wells and refineries, automobiles on the road, fumes from paint and other industrial chemicals, and gas-powered lawn and garden equipment.
It forms a smog that can cause the skies to become brown or hazy, and it is harmful to people, especially those with lung and heart disease, the elderly and children. Ground-level ozone is different than the ozone in the atmosphere that protects Earth from the sun’s powerful rays.
Wildfire smoke blowing from Canada and the Pacific Northwest did not help Colorado’s pollution levels in July, and then multiple fires erupted along the Front Range over the past week, creating homegrown pollution from fine particulate matter such as smoke, soot and ash. Ultimately, though, the heavy smoke days could be wiped from the calculations from 2024, but that decision will be made at a later date.
Still, June also saw multiple high ozone days, and air quality experts say much of the pollution originates at home in Colorado and cannot be blamed on outside influences.
The out-of-state wildfire smoke sent ozone levels skyrocketing the week of July 21 to 27, Silverstein said, but it’s not the reason the numbers are high. The week prior saw ozone levels above federal standards, too, and wildfire smoke had not drifted into the region.
“Pull the wildfires out and we would probably still have had high ozone,” he said.
Jeremy Nichols, senior advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, also warned that wildfires should not be used as an excuse for the region’s air pollution.
“While the wildfires are out of our control, there is a whole bunch of air pollution we can control,” he said. “I don’t want to let that cover up the ugliness that existed here in the first place.”
Nichols blames oil and gas drilling for the region’s smog. The state is not doing enough to regulate the industry, he said.
“We actually need to recognize we are at a point where oil and gas needs to stop drilling on high ozone days,” Nichols said. “Just like we’re told to stay home on high ozone days, business as usual needs to stop. I don’t think we’ve clamped down on them and in many respects they are getting a free pass to pollute.”
One proposal would require drilling companies to eliminate emissions from pneumatic actuating devices, equipment driven by pressurized gas to open and close valves in pipelines, Silverstein said. Oil companies already are required to make 50% of those devices emission-free, and the federal government also is requiring them to be 100% emission-free by 2035. But Colorado’s proposal would accelerate the timeline, he said.
The second proposal would tell companies to stop performing blowdowns, which is when workers vent fumes from pipelines before beginning maintenance to clear explosive gases, when an ozone alert is issued, Silverstein said.
“There are thousands of these very small events, but these small events add up to significant activity,” he said.
Gabby Richmond, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said the industry supports the new regulations. She said operators also were electrifying operations where possible and voluntarily delaying operational activities on high ozone days.
“Our industry values clean air, and we are committed to pioneering innovative solutions that protect our environment and make Colorado a great place to live,” Richmond said in a statement. “As a part of this commitment, we have significantly reduced ozone-causing emissions by over 50% through technology, regulatory initiatives and voluntary measures — all in the spirit of being good neighbors in the communities where we live and work.”
“Knock down emissions where we can”
Meanwhile, people who live in metro Denver and the northern Front Range are asked to do their part, too.
When the state health department issues an ozone action alert — which is a forecast for high pollution levels — people are asked to limit driving as much as possible. They also are asked to avoid using gas-powered lawn and garden equipment until later in the day when the sun starts dropping behind the mountains and temperatures fall.
It would be easy to blame Colorado’s ozone pollution on its geography, global climate change that is raising temperatures, and pollution blowing from other countries and states, Silverstein said. But Colorado has a responsibility to do its part.
“We have 4 million people and a big oil and gas field and lots of industrial activity and all of the things related to human activity all in one concentrated location with a great mountain backdrop, but it comes with a bit of a price,” he said. “So it’s up to us to find the strategies to knock down emissions where we can.”
