{"id":238900,"date":"2026-04-20T13:26:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T13:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/238900\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T13:26:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T13:26:15","slug":"thousands-urged-to-stay-indoors-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/238900\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands Urged To Stay Indoors in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

Residents across parts of west-central Florida, including around St. Petersburg, have been advised to stay inside as of 5:30 a.m. ET Monday. <\/p>\n

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA<\/a>) warned fine particle pollution, known as PM2.5, was at levels deemed “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” according to its AirNow map<\/a>, which records and monitors the air quality across America in near-real time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What Is Causing the Poor Air Quality in Florida?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although the EPA has not established exactly what is causing the elevated levels of PM2.5 across this part of Florida, the particles can be generated by several different sources, including thick dust from unpaved roads or construction sites, heavy smoke from prescribed burning, wildfires, or smokestacks, and excessive emissions released from vehicles or power and industrial plants.<\/p>\n

\"\"What Residents in Florida Should Do When the Air Quality Is Poor<\/p>\n

When the EPA registers that the air quality across a particular region is “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” vulnerable people, such as those who suffer from existing heart or lung conditions (such as asthma), young children, the elderly, and outdoor workers, should take steps to limit their exposure to the polluted air. They should reduce the intensity and length of all outdoor activities and monitor local forecasts and updates from the EPA, as air quality conditions can change rapidly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They should also try to keep the air inside, including in their homes, as clean as possible. They can do this by keeping windows and doors shut, avoiding burning candles, incense, and indoor fires, and using air purifiers or filters to keep clean air circulating.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although people in sensitive groups should remain vigilant and take precautions until conditions improve, everyone else shouldn\u2019t be affected. But they can help to improve the air quality by avoiding any burning, not driving on dirt roads, and trying to decrease vehicle emissions. They could consider taking public transport instead of driving, arranging a carpool to limit the number of trips made by individuals, or even working from home if possible.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why Is PM2.5 Considered To Be \u2018Unhealthy\u2019?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The EPA considers PM2.5 to one of the most dangerous type of air pollution<\/a> because the particles are so fine, less than 2.5 micrometers in size, which is smaller than the width of a single strand of hair, that they can be inhaled\u2014sometimes unknowingly\u2014traveling deep into the lungs and bloodstream, worsening medical conditions or triggering symptoms ranging from coughing and eye, throat, and nose irritation to chest tightness and a shortness of breath.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents across parts of west-central Florida, including around St. Petersburg, have been advised to stay inside as of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[42973,45267,28,105905,21865,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-238900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-air-pollution","tag-epa","tag-florida","tag-health-and-science","tag-pollution","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}