{"id":298143,"date":"2026-07-16T22:04:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/298143\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T22:04:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:04:19","slug":"wildfire-smoke-sparks-health-concerns-across-western-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/298143\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildfire smoke sparks health concerns across Western New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doctors across Western New York are warning that worsening air quality could pose serious risks for people with asthma, heart disease, COPD, and more.<\/p>\n

BUFFALO, N.Y. \u2014 State leaders and local doctors are warning residents about deteriorating air quality across Western New York, saying conditions have worsened enough to pose health risks for everyone and could continue for several days.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Wildfire Smoke and Air Quality issues Continue into Thursday<\/a><\/p>\n

Officials from the New York State Departments of Health and Environmental Conservation on Wednesday announced that air quality alerts for Western New York had been upgraded from “unhealthy for sensitive groups” to a broader “unhealthy” designation.<\/p>\n


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While people with underlying health conditions remain at the highest risk, all residents should take steps to protect themselves as air quality conditions worsen. Doctors, in particular, warned that individuals with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart disease, and other health conditions could face particular dangers from spending time outdoors.<\/p>\n

They also urged people to pay close attention to the Air Quality Index, or AQI, over the coming days.<\/p>\n

Dr. Sanjay Sethi, a professor of medicine at the University at Buffalo, said residents should monitor AQI readings and use them as a guide when deciding whether to spend time outside.<\/p>\n

“The lower the better, but less than 50 usually is thought to be a good air quality, 50 to 100 is borderline,” Dr. Sethi said. “And anything, I think, any triple digits, that’s the way I remember it and tell people, anything in triple digits, it’s not good.”<\/p>\n

Dr. Sethi said air quality conditions become even more concerning as AQI readings rise further.<\/p>\n

“When it’s 151 to 200, the air quality is even higher, that really puts everyone at risk ,” he said.<\/p>\n

Because of the elevated pollution levels, health experts are advising people to limit outdoor exposure, particularly activities that require significant physical exertion.<\/p>\n

“That means if you’re going to go outside, we encourage you not to do strenuous activity and to be careful about being outside for a prolonged period of time,” Dr. Sethi said.<\/p>\n

Experts also noted that N95 masks, commonly used during the COVID-19 pandemic, can help filter harmful particles from the air and offer added protection when outdoor exposure is necessary.<\/p>\n

State leaders said the event is likely to continue for an extended period and warned that air quality could deteriorate further by Thursday. Officials said they are closely monitoring conditions and will continue providing updates as new information becomes available.<\/p>\n

For now, authorities are encouraging residents to regularly check AQI readings, limit outdoor activity when possible and take precautions to reduce exposure to unhealthy air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doctors across Western New York are warning that worsening air quality could pose serious risks for people with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-298143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}