San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District officials are advising area residents that when conditions are cold, dry and stagnant, it causes PM2.5 emissions (particulate matter pollution) to accumulate, resulting in higher pollution concentrations throughout the Valley air basin. The air basin includes the counties of San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare and the Valley portion of Kern. The Valley Air District strongly urges the public to take health-protective actions to stay safe when high PM2.5 levels affect the Valley, including following air-quality recommendations when making decisions about outdoor activities.

Additional health protective actions include:

Staying indoors;

Using portable air cleaners or high-efficiency filters to remove fine particles from the air;

Planning ahead and creating a clean air room;

Visiting a Clean Air Center. Similar to the Valley’s cooling centers, the District’s Clean Air Centers provide relief when air quality deteriorates.

To help minimize air quality impacts during cold winter days, the Valley Air District recommends that residents, businesses, public agencies, and others continue to prioritize clean air actions, including closely watching residential curtailment notifications, avoiding the use of fireplaces and other indoor and outdoor wood-burning devices, using electric landscape maintenance equipment or limiting activities, avoiding outdoor cooking with charcoal or wood, minimizing activities that create dust (e.g. construction and agricultural conservation management practices), ensuring industrial equipment is properly maintained and in good operating order, tuning up your vehicle, and other clean air actions.

“Stable conditions are one of the main challenges the San Joaquin Valley faces during the winter months,” said Jon Klassen, Director of Air Quality Science. “This causes pollution to be trapped at ground level and build up quickly over a relatively short period of time, impacting the health of you and your neighbors.”

The public can check the local air quality at www.valleyair.org/myraan or www.airnow.gov. In addition, anyone can follow air quality conditions by downloading the free “Valley Air” app on their mobile device or downloading EPA’s “AirNow” app.

The Residential Wood Smoke Reduction program went into effect Nov. 1 and runs through the end of February. It provides daily declarations, by county, indicating if wood burning is allowed in the county that day. Daily burn status is available by visiting valleyair.org/burnstatus, by calling 1-800-SMOG INFO (766-4463), or by downloading the free “Valley Air” app. Valley residents are encouraged to eliminate wood burning altogether by applying for the Fireplace and Woodstove Change-Out program to receive as much as $5,000 to upgrade from older, higher-polluting wood stoves and open-hearth fireplaces to natural gas inserts and free-standing stoves. More details are available at valleyair.org/change-out.

For more information, visit www.valleyair.org or call the District office in Modesto at 209-557-6400.