With the sun obstructed by haze, Spain’s players practiced Thursday ahead of outside in northern New Jersey while because of .
It was not clear how fast-paced a practice Spain held. Media members are only able to observe the first 15 minutes of what was scheduled to be a hourlong session in East Hanover beginning at 11 a.m. EDT.
Argentina remained in the Atlanta area to work out less than 24 hours after and for a second consecutive tournament. Marietta, Georgia, is far enough south to avoid the effects of the fire, which are being windblown to the southeast from northern Ontario, triggering warnings from the U.S. Midwest through the Northeast.
Officials urged people to stay inside or wear masks outside as air quality reached unhealthy to hazardous levels, meaning it鈥檚 unhealthy for anyone, regardless of health conditions. Experts expressed concern over holding practice outdoors.
鈥淭hese are high-level athletes who are moving a lot of air through their lungs during every practice in every game, and really they shouldn鈥檛 be practicing outside if the air quality levels are at hazardous sort of ranges for wildfire-related air pollution,鈥� said Dr. Courtney Howard, an emergency room physician and Global Climate and Health Alliance official. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the time to schedule a practice inside. You could put an N95 mask on them, but trying to make sure that everybody鈥檚 mask is well-fitted, I suspect that鈥檚 not the best choice. I would go find an air-conditioned indoor facility that鈥檚 a clean-air shelter.鈥�
Messages sent to FIFA and the Spanish Football Association asking whether that was considered or possible were not immediately returned. The smoke is expected to clear the area well before the championship game Sunday in East Rutherford, New Jersey, with kickoff scheduled for 3 p.m.
The air quality in East Hanover on Thursday started early in the morning as 鈥渦nhealthy鈥� but got cleaner, so by mid-afternoon it was according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency鈥檚 Air Now monitoring system. Particle pollution in New Jersey on Thursday was more than seven times higher than the World Health Organization standard. The forecast calls for an improvement to .
Smoke from wildfires 鈥� which are burning more of North America as Earth warms 鈥� attacks nearly every system in the body, killing tens of thousands of people a year, numerous medical studies show.
It attacks the body immediately, spiking asthma cases with increased ambulance runs within hours. Smoke can trigger inflammation in different parts of the body, often attacking a person鈥檚 weakest points, which can then cascade into different effects of an immune system trying to fight a nasty irritant, doctors and scientists said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not healthy for anyone to be in the smoke, especially if you鈥檙e exercising,鈥� Harvard School of Public Health environmental health research scientist Mary Johnson said. 鈥淵ou’re exchanging more air, so you鈥檙e being exposed to even more pollutants, and even healthy individuals at some point will have some type of health effect from the exposure to the smoke. So, even though these are healthy, young individuals, it鈥檚 not a good idea to be exercising in this type of environment.鈥�
Scientists have counted at least 1,000 toxins in wildfire smoke, according to Colorado State University environmental toxicologist Luke Montrose.
鈥淚f I gave you a list you would recognize some of these as being very bad often times associated with the burning of diesel fuel or cigarette smoke things like formaldehyde or volatile organic compounds,鈥� Montrose said. 鈥淛ust the smoke itself can be bad.鈥�
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Climate video producer Teresa de Miguel in Washington and SNTV videographers Lissette Romero in East Hanover, New Jersey, and Max Feliu in Marietta, Georgia, contributed to this report.
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