A heavy haze settles over downtown Barrington as smoke from Canadian wildfires plagued the Chicago area last year. | Paul Valade/Daily Herald
By Jenny Whidden | Daily Herald
With an unfortunate boost from Canadian wildfires, Chicago’s air quality dropped a notch in 2023, identifying the city as the second most polluted in the United States, according to a leading international company that monitors air quality around the world.
In its 2023 World Air Quality Report, the Swiss technology company IQAir said pollution in the Chicago area is approaching three times the standard recommended by the World Health Organization.
The report found particulate matter concentrations in the city of 13.0 micrograms per meter. The WHO guideline is 5 micrograms. In the 2022 IQAir report, Chicago ranked as the third most polluted major city with concentration levels of 11.8 micrograms per cubic meter.
The measures refer to fine, inhalable pollutants with diameters that are generally 2.5 micrometers and smaller. Scientists refer to these particles as PM 2.5.
The report said Chicago’s increased air pollution can largely be traced to last summer’s Canadian wildfires, which sent smoke sweeping over southern Canada and the northern United States. Winds carrying pollutants across national borders produced a “transboundary haze” that was a major theme of this year’s report, IQAir’s Global CEO Frank Hammes said at a press conference Tuesday.
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