Check the air quality
Look up your local Air Quality Index before outdoor work or exercise, and scale back when it is high.
- How often
- As needed
- Time
- 1 min
- Recommended for
- 15 factors
How to do it
- Check AirNow.gov or the AirNow app for your area's current AQI and tomorrow's forecast. Sign up for EnviroFlash alerts if smoke or smog is common where you live.
- Learn the scale: 0–50 is good, 51–100 moderate, 101–150 unhealthy for sensitive groups, 151–200 unhealthy, 201–300 very unhealthy, and above 300 hazardous.
- When the AQI is high, move workouts indoors, shorten them, or choose a time of day when the air is better.
- During wildfire smoke, check the AirNow Fire and Smoke Map, keep windows closed and run a portable air cleaner.
Why it helps
Ozone and fine particles from traffic, industry and wildfire smoke get deep into your lungs. Hard breathing during exercise or physical work pulls in more of them. Checking takes a minute and lets you plan around bad-air days.
Be careful
If you have asthma, heart or lung disease, are pregnant or are an older adult, take precautions sooner, and follow your doctor's plan for bad-air days.
Recommended for
Alaska
Months of low sun, deep cold and summer smoke from big wildfires.
placeArizona
Extreme desert heat, intense sun and a lung infection that lives in the dust.
placeCalifornia
Wildfire smoke, valley fever dust, inland heat and year-round sun.
placeColorado
Thin air, stronger sun, high-radon soil and summer smoke.
placeDistrict of Columbia
Urban heat, summer ozone and ticks even inside the city.
placeHawaii
Tropical sun, volcanic smog on the Big Island and leptospirosis in streams.
placeIdaho
Mountain radon, smoky summers, cold winters and weak winter sun.
placeIndiana
High-radon soil, gray winters, humid summers and a lot of private wells.
placeMaryland
High-Lyme suburbs, radon in the central counties and humid summers.
placeMontana
High-radon ground, smoky summers, bitter winters and a short winter sun.
placeNevada
Desert heat, high-elevation sun, and a soil fungus kicked up by dust.
placeNew Mexico
Thin air, intense sun, and well water that deserves a test.
placeOregon
Wildfire smoke in late summer and dim, cloudy winters.
placeUtah
High elevation, intense sun on snow, and winter inversions.
placeWashington
Smoky late summers, dark gray winters, and radon in the northeast.