Thousands of people living across a swath of southern California have been urged to avoid grilling, burning incense and using gasoline-powered garden tools by the National Weather Service (NWS) amid a series of air quality alerts for fine particle pollution.
Why It Matters
The NWS warned that particles in wildfire smoke can “cause serious health problems such as heart attacks, strokes, asthma attacks, and difficulty breathing.”
These can impact anyone, but the young, old, pregnant and those with lung or heart disease are particularly at risk.
What To Know
On its website, the NWS said air quality alerts had been issued by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD), which regulates air pollution for a stretch of southern California including Orange County and parts of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
For the Santa Clarita Valley, including the settlements of Santa Clarita, Newhall and Valencia, the AQMD imposed an air quality alert applying from Friday afternoon through Sunday morning due to particles in wildfire smoke…