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State warns of unhealthy air along the coast

E-mail|Link|Comments () June 2, 2010 02:19 PM

By Shana Wickett, Globe Correspondent

A light onshore flow of air has drawn some smoke from Canadian forest fires that hovered over the greater Boston area on Monday back to the coast, according to state environmental regulators.

Though today’s air quality is better than it was Monday, it is considered unhealthy for sensitive groups – infants, the young, the elderly, and those with respiratory problems – along the immediate coastline in Boston, toward Lynn and into New Hampshire, said Joe Ferson, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

"That should last into the afternoon, and a developing southerly breeze should help blow away that smoke," he said.

A layer of fog appeared along the coast from the Gloucester area through Boston and on to Cape Cod this morning, according to the National Weather Service in Taunton. Data collected at DEP monitoring stations has indicated that the air also contains the smoke, Ferson said.

While environmental regulators believe the haze included smoke, a National Weather Service forecaster doubted it.

Though the National Weather Service does not measure air quality, meteorologist Charlie Foley said, "There is no smoke because the wind is blowing from the wrong direction."

Weather Service forecasters don’t expect a return of Monday's smoke because the winds are blowing out of the south, Foley said this morning.