Air quality, am I paranoid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live on the west coast where this is an annual thing. 130, not a big deal. High 100s especially for multiple days and we start to be careful. At a certain point our pool and beach closes because the lifeguards can’t focus safely. My kid’s indoor sport has been cancelled because they rely on rolling up huge garage doors for temperature control in the summer but during smoke season the haze is so bad some years that you can’t see across the building indoors.

My personal rule is that if you feel tightness in your chest or are randomly coughing, it’s time to be an indoor cat.

This is what I mean. Nothing at all is being cancelled even in 150-200+ AQI. The library had a big Back to School kick off in the smoke, and two towns over there is an outdoor carnival going on all weekend. Our town has an art festival today. Camps are continuing as they have all summer and I don’t see kids moving indoors. It really just feels like me holing up at home, making my family hole up at home, and wear masks on errands, while everyone else from toddlers to the elderly look at us like we are crazy. I see the air quality warnings from the government… why does it seem like I’m the only one who seems them? Is it different in DC?

NP - Are we in the same Michigan town? We also had an art festival today, although not sure about a library event. In any case, nothing changed around here for past couple of days, several years ago when the Canadian fires were really bad DS did have camp indoors one day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live on the west coast where this is an annual thing. 130, not a big deal. High 100s especially for multiple days and we start to be careful. At a certain point our pool and beach closes because the lifeguards can’t focus safely. My kid’s indoor sport has been cancelled because they rely on rolling up huge garage doors for temperature control in the summer but during smoke season the haze is so bad some years that you can’t see across the building indoors.

My personal rule is that if you feel tightness in your chest or are randomly coughing, it’s time to be an indoor cat.

This is what I mean. Nothing at all is being cancelled even in 150-200+ AQI. The library had a big Back to School kick off in the smoke, and two towns over there is an outdoor carnival going on all weekend. Our town has an art festival today. Camps are continuing as they have all summer and I don’t see kids moving indoors. It really just feels like me holing up at home, making my family hole up at home, and wear masks on errands, while everyone else from toddlers to the elderly look at us like we are crazy. I see the air quality warnings from the government… why does it seem like I’m the only one who seems them? Is it different in DC?

Does your area of Michigan experience high AQI infrequently? I’ve noticed that different places have different policies and it’s dependent on how often they experienced poor air quality. When we lived in Hong Kong, everyone had iqair purifiers and the government would declare mandates for no outdoor sports for kids, etc, on bad days. Where I live now, there are occasional bad days due to fires in the west, and we have had soccer games canceled due to bad air. My kids’ school cancels outdoor games and pe for aqi 150+.

I remember living in Shanghai, and the first time I ate an apple outside, was the last. It became black during a 10 min walk.

As places get more high aqi days, they will adopt guidelines. The east coast is getting wildfire smoke in months like November, which used to be very unusual.

[Anonymous]

OP- I’m a DC resident but also in Michigan for the month. AQI is bad where I am and I fully agree with you. Am forcing the kids to mimimize outdoor time (not ideal in this tiny house, we usually come here and spend all our time outdoors). Really hope it clears up soon but doesn’t seem imminent.

[Anonymous]

Boys 16s and 18s national tennis tournament currently happening in Michigan and no one seems to care about air quality. Business as usual.

[Anonymous]

I was just exercising outside further south but could smell woodsmoke or maybe fireworks. When I came back inside, I could tell something was a little off.

So, I don't think you are crazy at all. When one of the California wildfires happened, we had terrible air quality in the DC area for a while. I've purchased several air filters due to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boys 16s and 18s national tennis tournament currently happening in Michigan and no one seems to care about air quality. Business as usual.

At K College? That's not extremely far north. If I was in the UP, I might be more careful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boys 16s and 18s national tennis tournament currently happening in Michigan and no one seems to care about air quality. Business as usual.

At K College? That's not extremely far north. If I was in the UP, I might be more careful.

Well; air quality is 152 at K College today and play is going on

[Anonymous]

Random tangential question: Is this forum for folks outside the DC area? Genuinely asking, as I have recently noticed people posting sharing that they live in NYC, etc. Is this forum syndicated or do people from all over post because it’s a popular forum?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Random tangential question: Is this forum for folks outside the DC area? Genuinely asking, as I have recently noticed people posting sharing that they live in NYC, etc. Is this forum syndicated or do people from all over post because it’s a popular forum?

I’m posting from outside the mid Atlantic now, but started posting on the forum when I still lived in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Random tangential question: Is this forum for folks outside the DC area? Genuinely asking, as I have recently noticed people posting sharing that they live in NYC, etc. Is this forum syndicated or do people from all over post because it’s a popular forum?

People live all over, but many of us came from DC which is a transient town. I had my first child in DC more than 15 years ago and got on DCUM then.

[Anonymous]

There is a subforum for NYC so it’s not surprising to see them posting elsewhere

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Random tangential question: Is this forum for folks outside the DC area? Genuinely asking, as I have recently noticed people posting sharing that they live in NYC, etc. Is this forum syndicated or do people from all over post because it’s a popular forum?

I’m posting from outside the mid Atlantic now, but started posting on the forum when I still lived in DC.

DC is a transient area. DH and I lived in DC as single people and newly married. I found this site after I had my first baby. We moved to the Midwest when my second was born and have been there since.