CHICAGO — At Promontory Park in Chicago's Hyde Park, normally a spot for picnickers and parkgoers to admire an impressive view of the city, a group of four wore masks and looked across Lake Michigan at a whitish and gray skyline.
Miranda Mireles, 23, who grew up in Chicago and went to school in Washington state, said the scene felt “eerie.” She said the poor air quality had given her a headache.
”We’ve never had to deal with forest fire smoke,” Mireles said. “I was familiar with it (in Washington), but not here.”
As thick smoke from Canadian wildfires coated Chicago and the surrounding areas Tuesday, weather officials warned more bad air is expected Wednesday.
According to the monitoring site IQAir, Chicago had the worst air quality out of 95 cities worldwide Tuesday.
Trent Ford, the Illinois state climatologist, said the worldwide index is essentially an average of the air quality monitors in a city. However, factors like time differences and the amount of monitors in a city make it difficult to use the index as a complete picture.
“But in general, to see cities like Chicago, which don’t, citywide, have this kind of perennial problem with air quality, at the top of that list, just gives you an idea of how unusual the conditions are right now,” Ford said.
As of 11 a.m. Central time, the air quality index had risen to a level considered “very unhealthy,” according to AirNow, a website that combines data from county, state and federal air quality agencies nationwide. This means everyone is at risk of experiencing health effects.
Weather officials also issued air quality alerts into Wednesday for the Great Lakes region and the Lower Mississippi and Ohio valleys.
Smelling smoke is an immediate sign to stay indoors, said Zac Adelman, executive director of the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium.
“It’s very common to see smoke in the atmosphere above us,” Adelman said. “It’s not common to have high concentrations of smoke coming down to the surface like we’re experiencing it now.”
Smoke blows into Chicago “fairly regularly,” Adelman said. “There’s somewhere burning in North America at all times.”
How more smoke ends up at the surface level is more of a question of how it travels.
“We’ll be looking at this event for a long time to figure out, you know, what the particular dynamics and chemistry were that caused the smoke to come down to the surface here,” he said.
Factors like atmospheric conditions, how large the fires are and existing air pollutants in the city make it difficult to pinpoint exactly why Chicago has such bad air quality, despite other cities experiencing similar issues, he said.
Particulate matter known as PM2.5, which can be emitted by factories, power plants, diesel and gasoline vehicles, residential fireplaces and wildfires, was the main driver behind Tuesday’s elevated air quality.
As of 7 a.m. Tuesday, particulate matter levels were “three, four, times higher than we typically observe here,” Adelman said.
These tiny particles of solids and liquids in the air are one of the biggest pollution concerns, said Brian Urbaszewski, director of environmental health programs for the Respiratory Health Association.
“It is a function of where the fires are, where the weather systems are, and where the winds are blowing all that smoke in,” Urbaszewski said. “We’re in the crosshairs.”
PM2.5 refers to how large the particles are in micrometers. For comparison, the average strand of human hair is about 70 micrometers.
“There are particles that are small enough to get to the deepest portions of your lungs, actually get in your bloodstream,” Urbaszewski said. “In addition to all the problems that ozone causes, they also trigger things like heart attacks and strokes.”
According to Scott Baker, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Romeoville, Illinois, as of Tuesday the weather service has issued nine air quality alert days for the Chicago metropolitan area in 2023. Seven of those days have been in the month of June.
“It seems more frequent this year than what we’ve had in recent years,” Baker said. “Especially for one month having seven days, it’s definitely not the norm.”
The most recent air quality report from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency showed that in Chicago, there were no “unhealthy” air days in 2021. In 2020, there were two “unhealthy” days.
Kim Briggs, spokesperson for the Illinois EPA, said that Tuesday’s air quality in Chicago was forecast as “unhealthy” but there were a few hours where “very unhealthy” levels were recorded.
The Illinois EPA provides daily air quality readings for 14 regions across the state based on the air quality index. It is a color-coded system with six categories that classifies air quality from good to hazardous. Very unhealthy is one category below hazardous.
The index is a combination of levels of particulate matter and ground-level ozone, also known as smog. Though ozone in the atmosphere is good for filtering out harmful ultraviolet rays, it’s not great for human health at the surface, experts said. Ozone can burn the inside of your lungs, causing discomfort in the throat and coughing.
On Tuesday, the ozone level reached levels later in the day that are considered unhealthy for sensitive groups like people with respiratory illnesses and children.
Urbaszewski said these conditions can’t be separated from discussions about climate change. The wildfires in Canada emit greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide that further warm the planet.
“While breathing greenhouse gases, you know, doesn’t really have an immediate health impact here, it is causing a health problem by proxy,” he said.
Canadian officials have called this the worst wildfire season in the modern era with more than 480 active fires and more than 19 million acres of land burned so far this year, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center.
Liz Biddle, an ultra distance runner from Norwood Park, had been planning to run 20 miles Tuesday.
“I walked outside and it smelled like burning plastic. People were talking about how the air quality was really bad, so I thought I’d just put a mask on. But about a half a mile in, I couldn’t catch my breath,” she said.
Biddle, 40, said she turned around and slowly jogged home.
“I ran during Snowmageddon. I did an ultra that was in the desert and it got up to 116 degrees. You’d finish the run and blow your nose and it was black — I’ve done that. But I couldn’t do it today,” she said. “I can’t think of a time when the air quality has made me not run.”
Biddle, who said she has been doing ultra distances for about a decade, said she generally runs about 50 miles a week.
She said she is going to try again Wednesday. “I’m hoping it’s not gonna be as bad. I feel like if this continues, I can’t imagine that NASCAR would contribute to better air quality. It’s probably gonna make things just a little bit worse.”
NASCAR is holding its first street race Saturday and Sunday in downtown Chicago, and some residents have expressed concern about adding race car emissions to Chicago’s air quality issues.
Along the 26th Street corridor in Little Village, several people wore masks Tuesday morning. An older woman walked inside a restaurant, complaining about a headache.
Teresa Reyes McNamara said she worries about how Chicago’s poor air quality will affect older adults living in underserved communities. Reyes McNamara is the chair of the Southwest Environmental Alliance, an organization that has been advocating for environmental justice by demanding Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration establish legislation to protect neighborhoods like Little Village from developers that pollute their communities.
“This pollution in the air today is just another hit on the gut for the people here in the South Side,” Reyes McNamara said.
By late evening, she was refusing to leave her house, worried about the potential impacts that breathing the air would have on her. On the Southwest Side, many older adults work outside, especially construction workers and street vendors, she said. “They can’t stay home.”
When Faye Crouteau of Uptown went for a walk by the lakefront Tuesday morning, she said she noticed the air smelled like burning tires. Afterward, she was sitting outside wearing a mask because she couldn’t be inside her condo while it was being inspected.
She said her wife struggles with asthma and long COVID-19. When her wife woke up Tuesday morning, the first thing she said was, “I’m having a really hard time today.”
Crouteau said she was aware of how bad air quality was in New York City in early June but wasn’t particularly concerned about Chicago.
“We’re usually saved by the lake,” Crouteau said. “But that’s obviously not the case today.”
The mayor’s office issued a statement Tuesday saying the city has initiated a comprehensive response, including outreach to vulnerable populations, and special precautions such as moving Chicago Park District camps, Chicago Public Schools and other activities indoors where possible.
The city advised people without access to properly ventilated and safe indoor conditions to use the city’s public libraries, senior centers, Park District facilities, and the Cultural Center or the six community centers.
“This summer, cities across North America have seen unhealthy levels of air quality as a result of wildfire smoke, impacting over 20 million people from New York City, Washington, D.C., Montreal, and today here in Chicago,” the statement said. “As we work to respond to the immediate health concerns in our communities, this concerning episode demonstrates and underscores the harmful impact that the climate crisis is having on our residents, as well as people all over the world.”
Experts recommend that people stay inside and keep the windows closed. Running the air conditioner or using an air filter would also help. It’s not a good idea to do any physical activity because you breathe in more polluted air when overexerting yourself.
The current air conditions are unhealthy for everyone, but the risks are increased for children and adults with respiratory and pulmonary conditions, officials said.
If going outdoors, Urbaszewski said wearing a face mask can decrease how many smoke particles you’re inhaling.
“It’s all about minimizing the amount of smoke you’re breathing,” he said. “If you have (face masks) it’s a good day to use them.”
As for pets, Urbaszewski said to remember that they need to breathe, too. “Taking a long jog with your dog, probably not a great idea today because you’re gonna feel lousy and so will the dog.”
Dr. Ravi Kalhan, a pulmonologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said anyone exposed to “this degree of unhealthy air” is likely to have symptoms to varying degrees, whether it be constrained breathing, a burning sensation in the throat or red, watery itchy eyes, but those with chronic conditions should take extra care.
He said spending several hours outside in this level of poor air quality roughly equates to smoking a quarter to a half pack of cigarettes.
As other regions of the country dealt with excessive heat, Chicago’s temperatures reached only the low 70s Tuesday. Those temperatures are expected to climb into the low 80s over the next few days. Severe thunderstorms and excessive rainfall are possible through Saturday, weather officials said.
Ford, the state climatologist, said there are air quality alerts as far south as the Kentucky border, making this a statewide problem for the next few days.
For some parts of southern Illinois, where there’s both an air quality alert and excessive heat watch, Ford said it’ll be tricky to address these compounding issues.
“One of the suggestions for reducing the potential for heat health issues is finding a shady spot if you don’t have air conditioning, getting outside,” he said. “But you also then have this ‘You shouldn’t go outside, you need to minimize your time outside.’”
Everyone should take these air quality warnings seriously, Ford said.
“Even if you’re as healthy as they come, it can really do damage to your lungs, your respiratory system,” he said. “If you need an excuse to take it easy and not exercise, this is a really good excuse.”
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(Chicago Tribune’s Deanese Williams-Harris and Shanzeh Ahmad contributed to this story.)
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