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Hot & Muggy Weather Prompts Air Quality Action Day

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - With the hot muggy weather, today is the first Air Quality Action day of the season.

Our area is under an orange alert, meaning young children, the elderly and people with respiratory problems are especially vulnerable to air pollution and should limit their time outside.

Staying cool on a hot day in June can be a challenge for people who spend only a little time outside, but when your day job is digging ditches on a sidewalk, that's when it can be difficult.

"I wasn't expecting it to be this hot, no," Will Paul said.

Paul and his co-worker will spend nearly eight hours today digging a ditch to put in a water line on a soon-to-be renovated home on the North Side.

Yesterday, they didn't have much shade either.

"The tree wasn't enough so we brought the pop up and make it a little cooler, hopefully," he said.

The guys also have plenty of water to make their work day a little more enjoyable...

The alert covers Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Washington and Westmoreland counties.

If you have a respiratory illness, like asthma or COPD, doctors say this is not the time to be outside.

"If you have one of these respiratory illnesses, you have to be careful," Allegheny General Hospital Dr. P.S. Martin said. "The problem is those particulates. When they make contact w/the lungs of those people, they set off inflammatory responses that can make their breathing extremely difficult."

On Air Quality Alert days like today, it's recommended that we all limit daytime driving, don't refuel, unless you have to and do it after 7 p.m.

You should also wait until after seven to mow your lawn and try to save energy, things like washing dishes and clothes only when you have full loads.

For more on Air Quality Alert days and their effects, visit the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection website.

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