Americans across four US states told to stay indoors due to lung-damaging toxins filling the air

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Americans across four US states told to stay indoors due to lung-damaging toxins filling the air

Daily Mail
By CHRIS MELORE
9 February 2026

Hundreds of thousands of Americans across four states are waking up to a dire warning to stay indoors because the air outside is hazardous to breathe.

Pollutants reached 'unhealthy' levels for residents in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alabama, and Oklahoma on Monday morning, officials said.

An air quality tracking system from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) detected an extremely hazardous pocket of polluted air around the Pittsburgh suburbs, just ten miles south of the Pennsylvania city.

Live data captured sharply elevated levels of PM2.5, microscopic particles composed of toxic compounds or heavy metals that are small enough to penetrate the lungs, exacerbate respiratory issues such as asthma, and contribute to heart attacks.

In the South, a 110-mile swath across eastern Oklahoma has been declared unhealthy by the EPA, and a 127-mile-long pocket centered over Columbus, Georgia, is dealing with highly polluted air Monday morning.

The increased levels have been linked to recent wildfire smoke, which exacerbates a condition called stagnant air, where little to no wind and high atmospheric pressure trap pollution near ground level.

Air quality levels are measured on a scale from 0 to 500: good (0–50) carries little risk, moderate (51–100) may affect sensitive individuals, unhealthy for sensitive groups (101–150) poses increased risk and unhealthy (151–200) impacts everyone, limiting outdoor activity.

In Glassport, Pennsylvania, the Air Quality Index (AQI) reached 192, while readings in parts of Oklahoma, Georgia, and Alabama exceeded 150.

(more)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-15542589/Americans-four-US-states-stay-indoors-toxins-air.html

[DefiantMassRINO]

So, trees are a pollutant?

... also, more people are burining firewood to supplement electric, propane, oil, and natural gas heat.

Natural gas rates are obscene in Mass because solar panels and wind turbines don't supply natural gas needed to heat homes in Winter.

[catfish1957]

Geez, not this shit again.  What pollutant you are seeing is TSP (particulate) from fireplace smoke from a very cold winter.

And that TSP standard even back when I was doing this for a living was manufactured by lawyers, not pollutant scientist. Damn good thing the EPA didn't exist in the 1800's....... .  Half of us would have frozen to death.

[verga]

Geez, not this shit again.  What pollutant you are seeing is TSP (particulate) from fireplace smoke from a very cold winter.

And that TSP standard even back when I was doing this for a living was manufactured by lawyers, not pollutant scientist. Damn good thing the EPA didn't exist in the 1800's....... .  Half of us would have frozen to death.

The only TSP i am familiar with is Tri Sodium Phosphate, we used to use that as prep on Woodwork before painting, is that the same stuff? @catfish1957

[catfish1957]

The only TSP i am familiar with is Tri Sodium Phosphate, we used to use that as prep on Woodwork before painting, is that the same stuff? @catfish1957

TSP- Total Suspended Particulate. 

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Geez, not this shit again.  What pollutant you are seeing is TSP (particulate) from fireplace smoke from a very cold winter.

And that TSP standard even back when I was doing this for a living was manufactured by lawyers, not pollutant scientist. Damn good thing the EPA didn't exist in the 1800's....... .  Half of us would have frozen to death.

Keep fear alive right?

[DCPatriot]

Keep fear alive right?

Aww Geez...and I'm hooking my car to a heavy chain around a tree trunk for the "7 Seconds of Weightlessness" this August 12th.

[catfish1957]

Keep fear alive right?

Yeah that is 90% of it.  Culprit is when you have elevated and long term High Pressure (meteorologically) you fail to get the interzonal mixing of atmosphere, and particulates tends to accumulate in ambient air,.

Indiviudal who do have chronic lung problems (and they usually know how to deal with it) just need to stay indoors with good filtration, or if outdoor ... wear a particulate mask that covers you down to the PM 2.5 (2.5 micron level)  But you are right, headlines like this one are just one more example of fear mongering crap.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Yeah that is 90% of it.  Culprit is when you have elevated and long term High Pressure (meteorologically) you fail to get the interzonal mixing of atmosphere, and particulates tends to accumulate in ambient air,.

Indiviudal who do have chronic lung problems (and they usually know how to deal with it) just need to stay indoors with good filtration, or if outdoor ... wear a particulate mask that covers you down to the PM 2.5 (2.5 micron level)  But you are right, headlines like this one are just one more example of fear mongering crap.

What is dangerous is a weather inversion, where a warm front comes through and cold air is trapped in a valley/depression, and the pollution just lingers in there. It killed like 50 people in midwest in the 40's.

[catfish1957]

What is dangerous is a weather inversion, where a warm front comes through and cold air is trapped in a valley/depression, and the pollution just lingers in there. It killed like 50 people in midwest in the 40's.

Exactly.  There was a similarly caused event in England in December 1952 that killed an estimated 4,000

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_London

[verga]

TSP- Total Suspended Particulate.

Thank you for the clarification. @catfish1957

[Smokin Joe]

Well, this little panic over states mostly east of the Mississippi just ticks me off.

@roamer_1 How many days do you get in a summer you can't see across the valley--some days it gets murky at a few hundred feet because someone, somewhere is burning off some more mismanaged forest?

I honestly can't recall any panic over the months of being smoked in during Biden's administration,
and we could smell the wood smoke from hundreds of miles away.

[Sighlass]

Yet in another article we have that pot smoking can be beneficial by making certain parts of your brain swell. All smoke is bad, except pot.

[mountaineer]

I live about an hour's drive from said Pittsburgh suburb. I wonder why the local news stations haven't mentioned it. 

[BobfromWB]

Then there were the good old days in the 40s when most homes were heated by coal and trains ran on coal ... the heady aroma of coal smoke filling the cool night air, glorious!

[bigheadfred]

Then there were the good old days in the 40s when most homes were heated by coal and trains ran on coal ... the heady aroma of coal smoke filling the cool night air, glorious!

 

[DCPatriot]

Then there were the good old days in the 40s when most homes were heated by coal and trains ran on coal ... the heady aroma of coal smoke filling the cool night air, glorious!

Our "coal" cellar became a shelved fruit cellar where then stored the Sicilian tomato sauce/paste/puree...yes all three!  Also jams and jellies and pickled eggplant.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Then there were the good old days in the 40s when most homes were heated by coal and trains ran on coal ... the heady aroma of coal smoke filling the cool night air, glorious!

Here's the thing, coal really is nasty stuff. Don't need to be a AGW prognosticator to believe it IMO. I wouldn't want to live close to a coal power plant for example.

[Wingnut]

Our "coal" cellar became a shelved fruit cellar where then stored the Sicilian tomato sauce/paste/puree...yes all three!  Also jams and jellies and pickled eggplant.

The house I grew up in was built in 1910 and it had a coal chute and coal bin built in the unfinished basement.  By the time we moved in 1960 the furnace was converted to burn NG.  In the early 70's we converted the the basement into game bar area.  Our job as kids was tear out the coal bin and to wire brush the stone walls where the studs would be attached to the wall.  To the point, We din't wear masks back then and I was blowing black coal dust encrusted snot out my nose for several days! 

[roamer_1]

Well, this little panic over states mostly east of the Mississippi just ticks me off.

@roamer_1 How many days do you get in a summer you can't see across the valley--some days it gets murky at a few hundred feet because someone, somewhere is burning off some more mismanaged forest?

I honestly can't recall any panic over the months of being smoked in during Biden's administration,
and we could smell the wood smoke from hundreds of miles away.

shoot. If there is a fire within 100 miles west of here, and often, with a big fire, it don;t matter how far west or north...

I have a mountain, less than a quarter mile south of me... We get smoke thick enough that I may not see that mountain for a month or more... With bouts so thick you can't see cars going by on the highway 150 feet away.

I have very literally been stuck inside for months, the only thing saving me, that the air conditioner draws from inside...

Yeah... you can quit paying any attention to the attention whores. 

[berdie]

The house I grew up in was built in 1910 and it had a coal chute and coal bin built in the unfinished basement.  By the time we moved in 1960 the furnace was converted to burn NG.  In the early 70's we converted the the basement into game bar area.  Our job as kids was tear out the coal bin and to wire brush the stone walls where the studs would be attached to the wall.  To the point, We din't wear masks back then and I was blowing black coal dust encrusted snot out my nose for several days!

My aunt and uncle had one of those chute/bins leading to their  basement. And a furnace that had to stoked with the coal. Warm heat as I recall. My uncle was a coal miner. The biggest thing I remember was riding my tricycle in the basement and being scared of that furnace.