Wildfire Smoke Air Quality Alert: New York City among 10 most polluted major cities – IQAir

Air Quality Incident Report: New York City, August 6, 2025

Incident Overview and Impact on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

On August 6, 2025, New York City experienced a significant decline in air quality, ranking it as the 7th most polluted major city globally. This event directly undermines progress toward several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those concerning public health and urban sustainability.

1. SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being: Air quality levels reached categories classified as “unhealthy for sensitive groups” and “unhealthy,” posing immediate health risks to the population and challenging the goal of ensuring healthy lives for all.
2. SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities: The incident highlights the vulnerability of major urban centers to environmental hazards. It compromises the objective of making cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable by reducing the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, with special attention to air quality.

Source of Contamination and Link to Climate and Ecosystem Health

The primary cause of the poor air quality was identified as smoke originating from extensive wildfires across northern Canada, specifically in the provinces of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario. This points to broader environmental challenges related to climate change and ecosystem management.

• SDG 13: Climate Action: The increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires are linked to climate change. This event serves as a critical reminder of the urgent need for climate action to mitigate such disasters and their far-reaching consequences.
• SDG 15: Life on Land: The wildfires represent a significant degradation of terrestrial ecosystems, directly opposing the goal to protect, restore, and promote the sustainable use of forests and halt biodiversity loss.

Geographic Scope and Regional Implications

The impact of the wildfire smoke was not confined to New York City but extended across a wide geographic area, affecting numerous communities in the U.S. Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic, New England, and eastern Canada. This widespread pollution event underscores the interconnectedness of regional environments and the shared responsibility for maintaining them, a key aspect of SDG 11. Cities experiencing degraded air quality included:

• Albany, New York
• Buffalo, New York
• Chicago, Illinois
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Hartford, Connecticut
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Newark, New Jersey
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Official Advisories and the Need for Collaborative Action

In response to the hazardous conditions, the U.S. National Weather Service issued formal air quality alerts for multiple states, including:

• Delaware
• Illinois
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• New Hampshire
• New York
• Pennsylvania
• Vermont
• Wisconsin

The transboundary nature of this pollution event highlights the critical importance of SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals. Effective management of and response to such incidents require robust international and interstate cooperation to monitor atmospheric conditions, share data, and implement protective measures for public health and the environment.

Analysis of SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

1. SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being

   The article’s central theme is poor air quality, which directly impacts human health. The description of air quality as “unhealthy” and “unhealthy for sensitive groups” explicitly links the environmental issue to public health concerns, which is the core of SDG 3.

2. SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

   The article focuses on the impact of air pollution on numerous cities, with New York City as the primary example. It highlights a critical challenge for urban areas in maintaining a safe and healthy environment for their residents, directly connecting to the goal of making cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.

3. SDG 13: Climate Action

   The source of the pollution is identified as large-scale wildfires. Such events are increasingly linked to climate change, which exacerbates conditions like drought and high temperatures that lead to more frequent and intense fires. The transboundary nature of the smoke also highlights the need for global and regional climate action.

4. SDG 15: Life on Land

   The wildfires burning across northern Canada represent a significant degradation of terrestrial ecosystems, specifically forests. This goal aims to protect, restore, and promote the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems and halt biodiversity loss, all of which are threatened by the fires mentioned in the article.

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

1. Target 3.9: Substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses from hazardous chemicals and air, water and soil pollution and contamination.

   • The article’s focus on “unhealthy” air quality caused by wildfire smoke directly relates to this target. The issuance of air quality alerts is a measure to prevent illnesses resulting from exposure to this air pollution.

2. Target 11.6: Reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality.

   • The article explicitly discusses the poor air quality in New York City and other urban centers. The ranking of New York City as the “7th most polluted major city in the world” on that day underscores the adverse environmental impact on its population, making this target highly relevant.

3. Target 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries.

   • The wildfires are a climate-related hazard. The article mentions that “air quality alerts” are in place for multiple states, which is a direct example of an adaptive measure to help communities cope with the impacts of such hazards.

4. Target 15.2: Promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt deforestation, and restore degraded forests.

   • The root cause of the air pollution is “numerous wildfires burning across northern Canada.” These fires represent a failure or overwhelming of sustainable forest management practices and contribute to the degradation of forests, which this target aims to prevent.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

1. Indicator 11.6.2: Annual mean levels of fine particulate matter (e.g. PM2.5 and PM10) in cities (population weighted).

   • The article implies the measurement of this indicator. The classification of air quality as “unhealthy” and the city pollution rankings provided by IQAir are based on real-time measurements of pollutants like PM2.5, which is the key component of wildfire smoke. The article provides a snapshot of this data for August 6, 2025.

2. Indicator 3.9.1: Mortality rate attributed to household and ambient air pollution.

   • While the article does not provide mortality data, it provides the prerequisite information for assessing risk. The report of “unhealthy” air quality levels is the primary data used to estimate the health impacts and potential mortality and illness rates associated with ambient air pollution.

3. Indicator 13.1.3: Proportion of local governments that adopt and implement local disaster risk reduction strategies.

   • The article mentions that the “U.S. National Weather Service” has issued “air quality alerts” for several states. This is a direct example of a disaster risk reduction strategy being implemented at a regional and local level to protect citizens from the hazard of air pollution.

4. Create a table with three columns titled ‘SDGs, Targets and Indicators” to present the findings from analyzing the article. In this table, list the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), their corresponding targets, and the specific indicators identified in the article.

Source: iqair.com