Masks have returned to the streets of New York. The city that gave up the mask long before the pandemic receded, is again embarrassed by smoke from hundreds of uncontrolled fires in Canada. Unlike then, its use has become widespread today outdoors, while closed spaces become shelter except in the case of the metro, more polluted if possible. The use of a mask is one of the two recommendations of the authorities: avoid going out on the street and if it is essential to do so, cover your nose and mouth. Mobile phone warnings reminded this Thursday for the third consecutive day that the air quality index (AQI, in its English acronym) is still "very harmful", although it has improved slightly in recent hours.
This Thursday the authorities have distributed one million masks of the N95 type free of charge: 400,000 in the main transport hubs, state parks and the Javits Center, a multipurpose pavilion that hosts fairs and conventions; the rest among the local administrations of the State. They were already well visible on the streets the day before to mitigate the pungent smoke and the intense smell of burning, when the air quality level marked an average of 342 in the city, more than double that of New Delhi (164), and with higher peaks in Queens or the Bronx, where 413 were recorded on Wednesday.
Free distribution of masks in a subway station in New York, this Thursday. MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO (Getty Images via AFP)
"I had to buy them at the pharmacy, I had not used them for more than a year. But I had to take the dog outside," Rose, an athletic woman in her sixties, said Wednesday in Central Park. "My husband does not dare to leave until the emergency passes, he is asthmatic and therefore a person at risk. If we see it very badly, we will ask a walker to take care of the dog while this lasts, but they tell me that they are very requested. " Suspended over the Big Apple, a shower of visible particles, such as dust and soot, and microscopic, such as PM2.5, capable of penetrating the lungs and reaching the bloodstream, dyed the sky orange although a shy sun whitened the horizon on Thursday morning. Not even the leafy surface of Central Park served as an oxygen cushion.
So apocalyptic has been the threat, that the city has established a toll-free telephone line to report the evolution of the emergency. In principle, the alert was scheduled to apply until midnight on Wednesday; But it was extended by almost 24 hours, and then another whole day, until Friday. Several baseball league games were suspended, such as the one the Yankees had planned to play, while some zoos in the north of the state closed their doors and prepared evacuation plans – to inland dependencies – of the most vulnerable species, starting with birds. Planes bound for LaGuardia Airport were grounded due to poor visibility, and kids spent recess in classrooms Wednesday before schools closed. Broadway shows and the programming of several parks in the city were suspended, which in June bustle with free activities. Even runners were invited to take the day off, and that this Wednesday was celebrated the Global Running Day. Even so, some daring – much less than the rest of the days – trotted bare-faced through Central Park early Thursday morning.
Telecommuting saw a sudden increase among those who can afford it, such as Google workers, while deliveristas and blue-collar workers were forced to stay on the streets. "This is like being at a barbecue, you're enveloped in smoke," a worker at a building under construction in the Bronx said Wednesday, where the thick air was even more threatening than in Manhattan. Gustavo Ajche, a delivery driver who works in the financial district, acknowledged a day later that pedaling with a mask leaves him exhausted, but even worse without it. "My eyes itch, I have continuous clearing and a persistent headache since this started. But we can't stop; As in the pandemic, people are still asking for food."
Teenagers play basketball Thursday in New York.ANGELA WEISS (AFP)
"Canada burns out and New York hogs the spotlight?"
A spike of 218 at 10 p.m. on Tuesday sparked the emergency. According to the air quality scale, from 101 to 150 is considered unhealthy for vulnerable groups (asthmatics, coronary patients, infants, the elderly); from 151 to 200, unhealthy; from 201 to 300 very unhealthy and from 301, dangerous. It is hard to imagine an eight-hour day in the pit with a value of 413 like the one registered on Wednesday in the Bronx; the worst since the Environmental Protection Agency began measuring in 1999. Normally, the city's score is below 50, "good." Between 2017 and 2022, it never sneaked into the list of the 3,000 cities with the worst air quality in the world.
"I had been smelling smoke since I came home from work on Tuesday and I thought someone had lit the fireplace, which seemed absurd with the heat it makes. As the smell lingered, I searched the internet and saw the news of the Canadian fires," says Diana Kass, who lives north of Manhattan. "Anyone who doesn't want to see a direct relationship with climate change is either blind or foolish. Or vote for Trump," he adds of the former president's climate denialism, although no investigation has yet linked the wave of fires in Canada and the cloud of smoke and ash in the northeastern United States.
An activist wears a mask to protect himself from smoke, during a protest against climate change on June 8 in New York.AMR ALFIKY (REUTERS)
The impact of the Canadian fires on New York's air quality had already manifested itself in modest intermittent peaks throughout May, when the index rose to 75 points, but the viralization of the images of these days, with spectral scenarios, turned into a mass phenomenon an emergency that also demonstrates the vulnerability of the city. of any city, in the face of sudden climate crises. "Is Canada burning for weeks and New York is in the spotlight? How do you explain it?" mused Kass aloud.
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