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Americans live in counties that failed air quality standards last year
You know the feeling. The weather app says 72 and sunny, but the AQI reads 156. Your chest tightens before you even open the front door.
It used to be a wildfire thing. A few bad weeks in August, maybe September. You would close the windows, run the purifier, wait it out.
But the seasons have shifted. January brings weeks of dry, stale indoor air that leaves your throat raw by February. March rolls in with pollen counts that make your eyes water before breakfast. And by July, the smoke is back. Again.
Your lungs do not get a break between seasons anymore. The air outside changes, but nothing you do changes with it.
You have an air purifier in the bedroom. You check the AQI before you check the weather now. You stay inside when the app turns orange. And still, by September, your breathing feels heavier than it did in June.
Because air purifiers and closed windows protect you from the air out there. They do nothing for the airways in here.



