The St. Mary’s County Health Department encourages community members to take caution over the next several days due to local air quality alerts. The Maryland Department of the Environment has issued a Code Red Air Quality Alert for Southern Maryland for Wednesday, June 7, 2023 and predicts unsafe for sensitive groups to moderate air quality conditions on Thursday and Friday of this week due to the impact of fires in Quebec, Canada.
 
During air quality alerts, sensitive groups including people with heart or lung disease (such as asthma), older adults, children, and pregnant persons should avoid long or intense outdoor activities and consider rescheduling or moving activities indoors. All community members should reduce long or intense outdoor activities and take breaks during outdoor activities. N95 masks may be helpful in reducing exposure to outdoor air pollution. Indoor air filtration with particle removal may help address outdoor air pollution that gets pulled into indoor environments.
 
“Poor air quality can worsen symptoms for certain conditions, such as allergies and asthma,“ said Dr. Meena Brewster, St. Mary’s County Health Officer. “We encourage all community members to avoid outdoor strenuous activity or exercise outdoors during these air quality alert days.“
 
For real-time local outdoor air quality data and recommended protective health actions, please visit the Purple Air Sensor map on the St. Mary’s County Health Department Air Quality Dashboard at: smchd.org/breathewell. Please note that due to a technical issue the upper map is not current - for up to date air quality information, please view the Purple Air Sensor Live View map on the lower part of the dashboard.