Hi all! I noticed that there's been a lot more activity in this sub due to wildfire smoke affecting much of North America. I like to answer folks' questions and thought I'd do a post to consolidate things.

My background: My professional and academic career has focused on the intersection of energy, climate, and health. I was funded by the US DOE to develop a tool to quantify the impact from industrial pollution and the economic benefit from decarbonizing those facilities before going back to grad school. I have also done research on secondary photochemistry (what things turn into once they're in the sunny atmosphere) and I am currently getting a PhD focused on indoor air quality.

My current research looks at how outdoor air pollution gets indoors, what factors drive indoor-outdoor air exchange, and how to protect our indoor spaces (especially from wildfire smoke).

Ask me your questions!

Edit: So many great questions! I apologize if I don't get to yours immediately.

I just moved into a new rental and this ...new furniture smell is pretty intense... it’s VOC off-gassing, so an air purifier just sitting there circulating the same air isn't enough i need actual air exchange to dilute it.

andd i can't leave the windows open all day because the street traffic noise outside is super deafening, and i definitely can't drill holes for a wall-mounted ERV.....

so i ran into a pre-launch concept called "cozeware freshflow" while searching for window-mounted fresh air options.... the idea of bringing in filtered outside air without drilling makes sense for rentals, but i wonder if a compact window unit can actually move enough CFM to dilute VOCs effectively....

or would running the bathroom fan 24/7 be a better deposit-safe hack?...any idea?

I’m in eastern VA and since the air quality peaked this week I’ve had the above symptoms my doctor gave me eyedrops and an inhaler but I still can’t fucking breathe 😭 is anyone else dealing with this

I have just gotten an air filter. I cook often and now just learning about PM 2.5 and the dangers of heating oils excessively etc.. Hve been cooking the last 5-6 yrs and never even knew about this. I am 28 and scared about risks now.

Since Canada’s wild fire incident Thursday and the air quality increasing on Friday, I’ve been getting sick. Walking from my front door to my car gave me a bad burn in my throat and ear pain. But I didn’t feel it the rest of the day or Saturday. Until Sunday, my throat started to get itchy and losing my hearing in my ear. Honestly curious to see if anyone else was having the same symptoms as me.

Hi all. Sorry if this isn’t the right place to post this. I have a Hisense portable a/c tower. It’s the 8000 BTU model with dual hoses. I’m curious if there are any good filter recommendations for this a/c that would help filter out the wildfire smoke. Thank you in advance! 🙏🏼

Wildfire's made Chicago's AQI this past weekend hit 750. Outdoor pools closed across the city, but indoor pools remained open.

However, I have read that indoor pool health codes have strict ventillation requirements that are usually met by having an HVAC system that draws in fresh outside air.

I couldn't find any info on what filtration the outside air typically undergoes, if any.

Of course, exercising outside when AQI is 750 isn't a great idea, but does anybody have any idea of how safe it would be to do a vigorous swimming workout indoors during an extreme AQI event?

Where I am the air quality is back in the “good” range today. I still wonder if it’s safe to bring my babies outside for our walks and playground time as usual -

1) could there be anything residual hanging around on surfaces that wind or whatever can kick up?
2) I know AQ sensors from AirNow and others don’t measure VOCs and things Other than pm2.5 that might still be lingering

am I being overly cautious here or is there reason to still play it safe? Thank you for your input!

I have the air quality reader app with the purple wind icon/thumbnail. None of the sensors have updated readings. I’ve checked that the app is updated on my iPhone, but all of the sensors in my area say the last time data was updated was 11 months ago. Is there a better app now?

The air quality where I live is 137, which is the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” category. I have a garage that is detached from the house that I’m wanting to get cleaned up today, but I’m not sure with the way the air is. What would one suggest? I have no heart or respiratory issues that I know of, but my garage is not airtight at all and has a couple spots open to the outside

Hi everyone,

I'm the founder of MapYourHealth, a project that brings together environmental health information in one place.

One part of the project focuses on air quality. Along with local AQI information, I've been adding nearby pollution sources (such as landfills), smoking rates, radon rates, etc. to provide additional context about the environments people live and work in.

My motivation was simple: AQI tells us what the air quality is like today, but many people also want to understand what might be contributing to it and what other environmental factors exist in their area.

I'm interested in hearing from this community:

• What air quality information do you check most often?
• Are there datasets you wish were easier to access or visualize?
• If you use air quality maps regularly, what do you think they're missing?

For anyone interested, the project is here:
https://mapyourhealth.info

I'd genuinely appreciate any suggestions for improving the air quality side of the project.

About two days ago the plume labs app stopped working on the two different model pixel phones in our household. It still works on our Samsung devices. Has this happened to anyone else?

The AQI had been 175ish in my area for a few days. Today it finally went down to 50 so I took the opportunity to go for a bike ride. I went 11 miles of my usual 22 and ended up getting so winded and exhausted I had to stop at a friend’s place and lie down. I had a migraine and was wheezing. My wife biked home to pick up me and my bike.

The whole thing was really weird. Could the bad air have caused this even though it was better today?

I live in Michigan, and right now (at sunset), AQI is a bit above 100.
It's also 87 F in my small apartment, and I have no AC.

Can I open the windows to let air flow in?

It's supposed to be a low of 59 F tonight, and I could use the cool air. I have a small HEPA filter that I'm running, as well as a standing fan. Does the cool air help reduce the wildfire smoke, or will it make it worse by trapping it at lower altitudes? Any recommendations on how to keep cool but also reduce lung damage?

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I wanted to get the perspective of people who follow air quality more closely.

I attended an outdoor camping festival (Starwood 2026) from July 14–17 while wildfire smoke from the Canadian fires was affecting the region. Temperatures were around 98°F, and internet access in camp was extremely limited, making it difficult for attendees to monitor AQI themselves.

I became sick during the festival and left early. After getting into town, I found that AQI readings had reached hazardous levels, with reports over 500 at a nearby monitoring location during the event.

When I later asked in the festival's Facebook group why attendees hadn't been warned, my post was initially approved and the head of first aid responded that they were monitoring the situation and believed conditions were safe. As discussion grew about warning attendees, my post was removed.

My question for this community is: should outdoor festivals have a responsibility to notify attendees when air quality reaches hazardous levels, especially when many people have little or no internet access to check AQI themselves?

I'm not suggesting events should automatically cancel because of wildfire smoke. I simply believe attendees deserve accurate information about significant environmental health risks so they can make informed decisions about their own safety.

This is a PM2.5 chart from my Home Assistant sourced from 3 devices (a Dyson Big + Quiet BP02, a Philips AC3200 purifier, and a Qingping Lite) all placed in the living room equidistant from the kitchen where I'm cooking (which always leads to a spike).

Which scenario is more likely:

• My Phillips sensor is really sensitive and picks up the pollutant spikes the earliest, far before the Dyson or the Qingping or
• The Philips sensor is really inaccurate because both the Qingping and the Dyson seem to be solidly converging on the same values.

I'm confused because I remember my older Dyson (an HP07) used to consistently, every single day, show me readings of 800+ whenever I cooked, including when it was placed in a room further away from the kitchen. So my Phillips seems to be closest to those numbers, and often still hits 500+ while my Dyson and Qingpong don't go over 300.

I was at an outdoor camping festival over the weekend when the wildfires hit. Because I was camping and had no access to internet and I had no idea how harmful the levels were until after leaving! Although I did see the smoke, the event organizers did not make any announcements or warnings and at least 1000 other people at the event continued on as normal. People with babies and dogs were unfazed. This convinced me to stay.

This decision may sound stupid but please be nice; there wasn't any way for me to access the severity of the situation and as someone with OCD I couldn't tell if I was being a hypochondriac or justified in my worries.

I'm wondering what I can expect health wise. I already have a sore throat. I'm worried about the longterm impacts.