Wildfires Mean Portland Edges Out Kinshasa for World’s Worst Air
Wildfires burning across Washington and Oregon have left Portland with the worst air quality among major cities around the world, edging out Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The air in both cities is classified as unhealthy, although the quality is improving in the Congolese capital on Wednesday, according to IQ Air, a commercial monitoring service. At the other end of the ranking, Canberra, Oslo and Stockholm have the cleanest air, with Washington DC currently the highest ranked U.S. city.
Air quality alerts have been issued for both sides of the U.S.-Canada border as smoke from wildfires across the Pacific Northwest continues to cloud the skies. That includes parts of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, as well as British Columbia and Alberta. There are also pockets of very unhealthy air around Oregon and Washington.
Related: Washington Man Charged With Starting Devastating Spokane Fire
“Some members of the general public may experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects,” according to a warning posted on the U.S. National Weather Service’s website.
Fires raging through built up areas can release large amounts of “dangerous pollutants, which can be carcinogenic,” said commercial forecaster AccuWeather Inc. Where they can, people should use at least an N95 respirator to protect themselves.
Related: Wildfires Destroy Hundreds of Structures in Washington State
Global warming is turbocharging one of the U.S.’s worst wildfire seasons in years. Fires that erupted over the weekend in and around Spokane, Washington, have burned more than 10,400 acres, destroying homes and sending tens of thousands of residents fleeing for their lives.
Top photo: A burned truck sits in the driveway of burned out residential home in the Balboa neighborhood of Spokane, Washington, on August 2. Photographer: Erick Doxey/AFP/Getty Images. Bloomberg.