Likely due to wild fires all along the inner coast on both sides of the border:
https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#d:24hrs;@-121.6,48.5,7.5z
Try to reduce time spent outside and wear a K/N95 or P100 mask if you do.
Look into purchasing (or making) an active air filtration system for your home:
*The linked service (Windy) adheres to the WHO’s AQI standards which more heavily weigh levels of PM2.5 (particulate matter 20 times smaller than a human hair) and I only post these because the government, nor any of the news services, report this at all.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
These AQI forecasts are adhering to the World Health Organizations standard which more heavily weighs levels of PM2.5 (Canada apparently doesn’t at all) which can’t be seen or really noticed in anyway except by those who are really young, old or are already suffer from respiratory disease.
PM2.5 is particulate matter that is smaller than 2.5 microns; so, anything smaller than most bacteria and mould spores which can’t be seen by humans as that is ~20 times smaller than a hair. Because it’s so small, it can reach very far into lung tissues and in some cases even breach cell walls. When levels are this high there is almost certainly damage being done on a cellular level if one isn’t wearing proper protection and this greatly increases chances for disease such as cancer.
I don’t know why none of the news services report this, likely because they don’t know and the government doesn’t report it either. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Environment Canada and provincial governments definitely measure and report PM2.5 all over the country. They post warnings when it exceeds safe levels.
https://www.env.gov.bc.ca/epd/bcairquality/readings/find-stations-map-PM25.html
Yes, but they use their own standards, not the ones set by the WHO which are more in line with the science behind the health effects of pm2.5. The safe levels according to the government aren’t that safe.
Interesting. Would you have a source handy that I could check out? Thanks.