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News Release: DEQ expands air quality advisory for southwest Oregon to include Curry County


Statewide, Ore.—The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is expanding an advisory in place for Southwest Oregon to include Curry County. With a number of active wildfires in the area, the advisory is in place until further notice.

That advisory includes Douglas, Josephine, Jackson, Klamath and Lake counties.

Monitors in Gold Beach, Agness and Brookings can be viewed on the Oregon Smoke Blog at https://oregonsmoke.blogspot.com/

Daily smoke forecasts for those monitors are also being posted. On Tuesday morning, air quality monitors in Brookings and Gold Beach were moderate while Agness was unhealthy. Forecasters were predicting air quality in those areas today to be unhealthy for sensitive groups (Gold Beach and Brookings) or unhealthy (Agness).

Local smoke levels can rise and fall rapidly. Residents can view current air quality conditions at DEQ’s Air Quality Index https://oraqi.deq.state.or.us/home/map The index is also available on smart phones. Simply search for OregonAir in your app store.

The Oregon Smoke Blog also has an air quality map that includes temporary monitors close to specific fires, daily smoke forecasts for specific areas, and other resources. Visit the Oregon Smoke Blog for more information: http://oregonsmoke.blogspot.com/.

The color-coded Air Quality Index ranks air quality as follows: Green is good. Yellow is moderate, which is unhealthy for extremely sensitive groups. Orange is unhealthy for sensitive groups such as children, the elderly, pregnant women and those with respiratory conditions. Red is unhealthy for everyone. Purple is very unhealthy for all groups. Maroon is hazardous.

People can take the following precautions:

- Be aware of smoke concentrations in your area and avoid the places with highest concentrations.

- Avoid strenuous outdoor activity in smoky conditions.

- If you have heart disease, asthma or other respiratory ailments, or are over 65, you have a higher risk of illness from wildfire smoke.

- Small children and pregnant women are also at increased risk. These residents are encouraged to stay indoors.

- People suffering from asthma or other respiratory problems should follow their breathing management plans or contact their healthcare providers.


Oregon's monitoring network does not capture air quality conditions in all communities so it is important for residents to gauge air quality conditions where they live and take appropriate actions to protect themselves.

Central and Eastern Oregon are under an advisory until noon Thursday. An advisory covering Portland, Northwest Oregon and the Willamette Valley is set to expire at noon Wednesday. Lane Regional Air Protection Agency has also issued an advisory for Lane County until 6 a.m. Thursday.

Contact: DEQ: Katherine Benenati, Public Affairs Specialist, Eugene, 541-600-6119, benenati.katherine@deq.state.or.us