417. The Cigarettes

Wildfire smoke from Canada has been affecting air quality across the northeastern United States, including New York City. A pollution expert has noted that spending a full day in New York City's wildfire smoke is equivalent, in terms of particulate matter inhaled, to smoking approximately ten cigarettes. This was reported as a warning. The warning was issued. New Yorkers were encouraged to take precautions.

New York City has some of the most comprehensive indoor smoking regulations in the country. Smoking is prohibited in restaurants, bars, offices, and most public spaces. The Clean Indoor Air Act, enacted in 2002, was designed to protect New Yorkers from secondhand smoke. The act was passed. The regulations were enforced. For approximately two decades, the law has prevented people from smoking inside New York restaurants. The smoke from the wildfires is outdoors.

(A cigarette introduces a specific set of chemicals into the lungs. Wildfire smoke introduces a different set. The comparison is based on particulate matter concentration, a measurement of the density of fine particles in the air. Ten cigarettes per day is considered, by most relevant medical authorities, to be a significant number of cigarettes. The city of New York has enacted comprehensive laws to prevent people from smoking indoors. The outdoors, at present, is approximately ten cigarettes.)

When the Air Quality Index is elevated, citizens are advised to stay indoors. The indoors, under the Clean Indoor Air Act, are smoke-free. The outdoors is approximately ten cigarettes. The recommended response is to move from the ten-cigarette environment to the smoke-free environment. The smoke-free environment is the one the city built the regulations to protect. The ten-cigarette environment arrived from Canada without filing for a permit.

Precautions recommended by public health officials include limiting time outdoors, wearing an N95 mask when outdoor activity is necessary, keeping windows closed, and using air purifiers where available. The N95 mask reduces the inhalation of particulate matter. The Clean Indoor Air Act does not apply to wildfire smoke. The wildfire is in Canada. Canada has not been cited.

New York spent twenty years making it illegal to smoke inside. The outside is now ten cigarettes. The law stands. I am not making this up.