WISCONSIN — As smoke from Canadian wildfires continued to settle in over much of the northeastern U.S. on Wednesday, various air quality alerts were issued and expected to remain in place well into Thursday.
"What we're concerned about are mainly people with some underlying health conditions, such as asthma or cardiovascular disease — those folks who may be more susceptible to increases either in particulate matter from air pollution or ozone," said Dr. Mark Werner, the director of the Department of Health Service's Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Health.
Here in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources' air quality report had most counties' air quality levels at "good" or "moderate."
"We certainly are in a different situation," Werner said. "We've seen some increase in particulate pollution on-and-off over the past week, but nothing on the scale they're seeing out east."
Watch the full interview above.