Breathing unhealthy air could be routine for almost one in three Americans by 2100 due to climate change, modelling led by researchers at Waterloo Engineering shows.
The new study found that about 100 million people in the United States will live in areas where average air quality during smog season – which runs from the beginning of May to the end of September – is poor enough to trigger alerts advising vulnerable people to stay indoors.
That is a sevenfold increase from an estimated 14 million people in 2000, with most of the increase coming in California and the eastern United States.
“Climate change could cause days with poor air quality to shift from rare to commonplace,” said Dr. Rebecca Saari, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and the Canada Research Chair in Global Change, Atmosphere and Health at Waterloo.
“People who are especially sensitive to air pollution, including the elderly, children with asthma and those with health conditions, could face a daily coin flip, with nearly even odds of an alert every day asking them to change their behaviour to reduce exposure.”
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