San Luis Obispo County warns of bad air quality due to smoke
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District and the Public Health Department are assessing the air quality in San Luis Obispo County on Tuesday.
The two agencies are partnering together to assess the air quality in order to identify any potential health impacts and to inform the community about safeguarding their health.
There are currently several wildfires in and out of the County that are impacting air quality, the County says these fires are particularly in northern San Luis Obispo County.
The County tells residents to expect skies to be hazy and for fine particulate concentrations to be higher than normal.
They say changing winds makes it difficult to predict which areas of the County may be most affected, however until the fires are out, smoke will be likely intermittently present in the area.
The County advise that if residents smell smoke or see ash fall, they should take precaution and use common sense to reduce exposure to smoke.
They advise sensitive groups to head indoors and remain indoors if possible, avoid strenuous outdoor activity, and close all windows and doors that lead outside to precent bringing additional smoke inside. This is escpecially important towards this group of children, older adults and people with existing respiratory illness and heart conditions, as they are particularly vulnerable to the health effects of poor air quality.
For more information, click here.
Public Health says that the cloth masks will not adequately protect you from inhaling wildfire smoke. With the pandemic and short supply of N95 masks, the County asks for people to stay indoors if possible to be away from wildfire smoke.
The APCD and County officials will continue to closely monitor smoke impacts and air quality in San Luis Obispo County.
The public can also monitor real-time air quality throughout SLO County by following the air quality index (AQI).
The AQI focuses on health effects individuals may experience within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air.
For the current and forecasted AQI, click here.
