Air Quality Code Orange

After a few days of reprieve, Butler County and the rest of the Pittsburgh area was placed back under a Code Orange air quality alert just in time for the start of summer.

On Monday morning, June 19, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection declared a Code Orange Air Quality Action Day for Butler County and many other counties across the state, as a combination of smoke from Canadian wildfires, high temperatures and dry weather led to a resurgence of pollutants.

According to Airnow.gov, the pollutant causing the alert is ozone, which was at level 104 at the time the alert was issued.

At ground level, ozone is a harmful pollutant made up of largely of nitrogen oxides and caused by human industrial activity — namely, vehicles and factories.

“It’s the summer. People are traveling around, there are more cars on the road, warmer temperatures and the wildfires,” said Fred McMullin, meteorologist for the Pittsburgh branch of the National Weather Service. “It complies. There’s multiple factors leading to it.”

For the past two weeks, smoke from wildfires in Canada has wreaked havoc on the skies over the northeast United States. On June 6, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued a Code Red air quality warning for the entire commonwealth. Some parts of the United States, including Washington, D.C., fell into the even worse Code Purple.

During Code Orange Air Quality Action Days, more sensitive groups should limit outdoor activities. These groups include young children, the elderly and those suffering from respiratory diseases such as bronchitis or asthma. Code Orange alerts are issued when the Air Quality Index of either ozone or fine particulate matter is measured between 101 and 150.