The smoke is clearing in Pennsylvania; What did we learn about air quality?

• Scott LaMar
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Scott LaMar has worked in both radio and television for more than four decades.
  
  Currently, LaMar is the Host and Executive Producer of The Spark program on WITF-FM, 89.5 & 93.3 in Harrisburg, Pa.
  
  Previously, LaMar was WITF TV’s Sr. Public Affairs producer and produced the station’s award-winning weekly public affairs TV program, Smart Talk.
  
  In addition to his on-air duties, LaMar has moderated political candidate debates, including those for candidates running for Pennsylvania governor and the U.S. Senate and was a regular contributor to BBC World News TV before and after the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
  
  LaMar often emcees or moderates local events and has gone as far as California to emcee a national event.
  
  The American Society of Civil Engineers honored LaMar with their national Excellence in Journalism award in 2020. He has been nominated for five Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards.
  
  LaMar and The Spark have been recognized throughout the Central Pennsylvania community including ADVOZ Lancaster’s “Dignity in Dialogue Award”, the South-Central Assembly’s “Regional Citizen Award” and was named a “Humanitarian Hero” by The Humane Society of the United States/Pennsylvania.
  
  A native of Coatesville, Pa., LaMar has also worked as a broadcast news anchor, sports play-by-play announcer and manager.

 Doug Watson, WITF

The skyline of Harrisburg on June 8, 2023

Airdate: Friday, June 9, 2023

This has been a week like no other in Central Pennsylvania. Smoke from wildfires in Canada enveloped the region and most of the northeastern part of the country this week. The smokey haze led to air quality warnings, unhealthy air, more people staying inside – even with pleasant temperatures and low humidity – and events being postponed or canceled.

The Environmental Protection Agency says Central Pennsylvania started the day Friday still in a Code Orange — meaning people who are sensitive to bad air conditions – like those with Asthma or COPD — could be impacted. The EPA expected the air to clear and get better throughout the day.

StateImpact PA reporter Rachel McDevitt was on The Spark Friday and explained why this region had some of the worst air pollution in the world this week,”When we got that smoke in our area, it’s combining with our own air pollution that we’re already generating from cars and from industry and from agriculture and things like that. So, Philadelphia already has pretty bad air quality day to day. So when when we get that added stuff from Canada, from the wildfire smoke, that’s just like compounding the problem.”

Many Pennsylvanians learned about the EPA airnow.gov website for the first time this week as McDevitt described,”They have hour by hour updates on the air quality using the air quality index. And so you can get two different measurements, one for particle pollution, which everybody should be familiar with. Now it’s smoke. It’s tiny particles that get emitted from exhaust pipes on your car, from industry, from agriculture. Those those are particles that are very small. They can get deep into your lungs. And they also give you a measurement for ozone, which is a gas that we breathe in. That happens with a combination of heat and chemicals particles in the air.”

The air quality index goes from 0-500 and at times this week, Central Pennsylvania’s air quality was in the 400 range, meaning it was hazardous.

McDevitt said that scientists believe climate change could make extreme events like this week more frequent.