The California wildfire season runs from June to October, placing the beginning of the school year in the middle of Calfornia’s worst fire potential, according to Western Fire Chief Association. Bay Area residents have been experiencing poor air quality due to fires currently in Northern California and Oregon.
Poor air quality is known to exacerbate existing illnesses or health concerns, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Students with colds and other health issues should note the poor air quality when preparing to exercise or take on other strenuous activities.
“The air quality is not great, especially because of my recent cold, the air quality is aggravating my symptoms,” said sophomore Sofia Ponce de Leon, “My mom, who is a public school teacher in Marin, had to cancel some of her outdoor activities like P.E. due to the bad air quality,”
The air quality may impact life, especially for those living outside of San Francisco or have extracurricular activities which take them away from the city. Due to health risks practices, games, and other events may be canceled because of the dangerous conditions.
“With cross country, it’s a little hard sometimes because the air quality affects running,” said junior Ella Andrzejek, “You don’t want to be doing a ton of strenuous exercise in bad air quality as it can be dangerous,”
Students who participate in sports should look at the air quality which is noted by the Air Quality Index, a scale from 0-500 in which 0-50 is good, 51-100 is moderate, 101-150 is unhealthy to sensitive groups, and so forth until the hazardous 301 and higher, according to Airnow.gov.
“I remember seeing a lot of smoke going home yesterday by Candlestick park and I was wondering where it was coming from,”said sophomore Abby Chacon-Lara, “It reminded me of back when we had the wildfires and the sky turned orange, which was a scary day,”
Pollution and wildfires can be very taxing and distressing especially for students. Other students remember the Air Quality index as it showed the red and purple stage between 151 and 300 where the air quality was unhealthy or very unhealthy.
“The worst air quality was some years ago when it was so bad it was a red or a purple,” said Ponce de Leon, “We all had to wear masks outside not because of covid, but because the air quality was so bad,”
