ALBANY COUNTY — While over 100 wildfires are still burning in Quebec, shifting winds have freed Albany County residents of the three days of “unhealthy” air that plagued the Upper Hudson Valley and most of the state on June 6, 7, and 8.
During that spell, part of the state had air quality conditions labeled by the Environmental Protection Agency as “hazardous.”

As of Tuesday, June 13, at 9 p.m., Quebec’s fire prevention agency, Société de protection des forêts contre le feu, reported 111 active wildfires, down from 125 on June 9.

The 10-year average for hectares burned by June 13 was 2,225 or roughly 5,000 acres, the agency reported. However, this year, over 857,000 hectares or more than 2 million acres have burned.

The agency says the fierce start to the fire season this year has in part been due to high temperatures and dry conditions in the province.

On Tuesday, June 6, the state’s departments of health and of environmental conservation had issued an air-quality advisory for the Upper Hudson Valley, assigning an index number of 159 where the major pollutant was particulate matter — tiny, invisible particles that can penetrate the lungs and circulatory system.

The AQI peaked for the Upper Hudson Valley the next day, Wednesday, June 7, at 177 but continued in the “unhealthy” range through Thursday, at 162.

A number over 150 is considered “unhealthy” for everyone, not just for people with vulnerabilities. 

Basil Seggos, commissioner for the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, referenced the “Dickensian skylines” in a press conference on Wednesday as skies darkened and turned shades of orange and brown. “We’ll pray for rain up north,” he said, “and pray for the wind to shift.”

Governor Kathy Hochul on Wednesday called the situation “unprecedented” and urged residents to stay inside. She recommended that schools cancel outdoor activities and on Thursday, the Guilderland school district said it was following that advice.

The state’s transportation department, monitoring both air quality and visibility on Wednesday, pulled some work crews off the job where conditions were worst, in the Rochester and Syracuse areas.

The state’s labor department on Wednesday encouraged employers located in regions with air quality health advisories in effect to limit outdoor work and activities that require exertion.

“Industries with workers who may be especially susceptible to the impacts of the Canadian wildfire smoke exposure include farming and agriculture, construction, landscaping, highway maintenance, and other fields that require outdoor heavy-exertion labor,” the announcement said.

On Thursday, the White House posted a “Fact Sheet,” outlining help the Biden-Harris administration was providing to areas suffering from the smoke pollution, such as the real-time data from the EPA’s AirNow.gov site and technical assistance for public-health officials.

The sheet also said that, in the United States, since Jan. 1, 19,574 wildfires have burned 616,486 acres with most current large fire activity concentrated in the Southwest.

The state distributed a million N95 masks on Thursday morning and the New York State Gaming Commission directed all tracks to stop racing, training, and workouts until further notice.

The gaming commission announced it has set standards such that, if the air quality index number at a facility exceeds 200, no racing or training is to be conducted; if the AQI is between 150 and 200, “only those horses that pass an additional pre-race respiratory veterinary examination will be permitted to race.”

The state’s health department has an Electronic Syndromic Surveillance System, which reported 147 asthma-related emergency-department visits to New York hospitals, not including New York City, on June 7, compared to an average of 80 for the five-day period June 1 through June 6.

Using data reported for “respiratory symptoms” on June 8 from Emergency Medical Services response data, which is a timely early-warning source, the health department observed a statewide increase of 17.8 percent in the rates per 100,000 on Wednesday, June 7, as compared to the average of the five-day period of June 1 through 5.

At the same time, for the metropolitan New York City region, the increase was 28.4 percent and for the Capital Region, it was 12.4 percent.

Local air quality improved on Friday, June 9, as winds blew west and by the EPA’s definition the air went from “unhealthy” to “good” in the Upper Hudson Valley and in most of the state with an AQI under 50.

 The AQI for the Upper Hudson Valley on Friday, June 9, was 34 and it decreased further to 30 on Saturday. For the first time in a week, the primary pollutant on Saturday was not particulate matter but rather ozone.

But on Sunday and Monday, June 11 and 12, as winds shifted again, the air quality was “moderate,” with an AQI from 51 to 100 where the EPA advises “there may be a moderate health concern for a very small number of people who are unusually sensitive to pollution.”

On Sunday and Monday the primary pollutant, once again, was particulate matter.

A month-long look back shows that, for most days from May 14 to May 30, the air quality in the Upper Hudson Valley was “good” and the primary pollutant was ozone. For three days at the start of June, air quality became “moderate,” again largely because of ozone.

Particulate matter appeared as the dominant pollutant on June 3.

On Tuesday night, June 13, the state’s system for tracking air quality showed New York City and Long Island with “moderate” air quality — caused by ozone — and the rest of the state, including Albany County in the Upper Hudson Valley, with “good” air quality.