NEW YORK — Schools across the US East Coast cancelled outdoor activities, commercial airline traffic was slowed and millions of Americans were urged to stay indoors on Wednesday (June 7) as smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted south, blanketing cities in a thick yellowish haze.
The US National Weather Service issued air quality alerts for virtually the entire Atlantic seaboard. Health officials from Vermont to South Carolina and as far west as Ohio and Kansas warned residents that spending time outdoors could cause respiratory problems due to high levels of fine particulates in the atmosphere.
New York's world-famous skyline, usually visible for miles, appeared to vanish underneath the otherworldly veil of smoke, which some residents said made them feel unwell. New York Governor Kathy Hochul called the situation an"emergency crisis", noting that the air pollution index for parts of her state was eight times above normal.
A Broadway matinee of"Prima Facie" was halted just 10 minutes into its performance after actress Jodie Comer experienced difficulty breathing due to poor air quality. At 12pm EDT , Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was experiencing the worst air quality in the country, with an AQI reading of 410. Among major cities, New York had the worst air quality reading in the world on Wednesday afternoon at 342, about double the reading for chronically polluted cities such as Dubai and Delhi , according to IQAir.The smoke was wafting over the US northern border from Canada, where hundreds of forest fires have scorched 3.
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