Children and other sensitive groups are being urged to remain indoors today across parts of southern California, Oregon and Arizona, where air quality was reported as “unhealthy for sensitive groups” or worse on Friday morning, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) AirNow website.
Areas such as the Coachella Valley in California, Phoenix in Arizona, and parts of Oregon are experiencing elevated levels of ozone and particulate pollution, posing heightened health risks.
Why It Matters
Children are among the populations most vulnerable to poor air quality.
A spokesperson for the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) in California told Newsweek that exposure to particle pollution “can cause premature death in people with heart or lung disease, cause heart attacks, aggravate asthma, decrease lung function, and cause respiratory symptoms like coughing and difficulty breathing.”…