New York was eerily orange on Wednesday as smoke shrouded the city. The haze drifted in from wildfires raging in Quebec, some 500 miles away, wreaking havoc on air quality across the Northeast US.
The smoke was so thick, New York City briefly ranked as the most polluted city in the world. The Environmental Protection Agency issued its highest warning for pollution, a “Code Maroon” for hazardous air quality. The pollution was record-shattering on Wednesday, with an air quality index score of 392 around 4PM ET for fine particles beating a record of 174 set a day earlier (according to the EPA’s records, which started in 1999, The New York Times reports).
Fine particle pollution is especially worrying because it’s small enough to enter the…
