Sign up for Sierra Club Air Alerts, and receive an immediate text message when an air quality alert is issued in your area. You can better protect yourself and your family and plan outdoor activities accordingly when you know if outdoor air is polluted with harmful levels of smog.
How harmful is smog?
When smog reaches unhealthy levels, your area government will issue an air quality alert. Smog, or ground-level ozone, is a dangerous pollutant that, when breathed, can cause inflammation compared to a sunburn. Children whose lungs are still developing, senior citizens, and persons with asthma and other respiratory ailments are most at risk from smog pollution, but no one is safe outside on high ozone days.
How do you know how bad the alert is?
Local media often categorize air quality warnings as Orange (unhealthy for sensitive groups), Red (unhealthy), or Purple (very unhealthy) alerts.
- Orange: Members of sensitive groups may experience health effects. The general public is not likely to be affected.
- Red: The entire population is more likely to be affected, and anyone with respiratory disease should avoid prolonged activity outdoors. These are considered to be emergency conditions.
- Purple: The entire population is more likely to be affected, and everyone should avoid prolonged activity outdoors. Anyone with respiratory disease should avoid all outdoor activity. These are considered to be emergency conditions.
What You Can Do?
Sign up for Sierra Club Air Alerts, and urge your family and friends to sign up too. You’ll receive a text message any time the EPA issues a smog warning within 50 miles of your zip code. We’ll also send you no more than four messages each month from the Sierra Club.
You can also check out our Action Alerts to see where you can lend your voice to efforts to reduce dangerous smog pollution, clean up our air, and protect our children.
Our communities deserve clean air, free from smog pollution caused by burning fossil fuels. But when the air is not fit to breathe, you need to know about it.