DETROIT – Air quality was forecast to be “unhealthy for sensitive groups” on Monday across Metro Detroit.

Pollutants were expected to combine with hot temperatures to create “bad” ozone across Metro Detroit by the afternoon. High temperatures were forecast to reach the mid-90s on Monday, June 17, and will feel even warmer because of the humidity.

An air quality alert, also known as an “ozone action day,” was issued for Monday in Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, St. Clair, Washtenaw and Wayne counties. The air quality index, known as the AQI, was expected to enter the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” range, which is between a 101-150 AQI. An AQI above 300 is considered hazardous.

At this range, most people won’t be affected by the poorer air quality.

However, those in “sensitive groups” — such as young children, older adults, or those with asthma or other respiratory issues — may be impacted by breathing in the air, especially over a long period of time. They’re encouraged to reduce exposure to the ozone by “choosing less strenuous activities” or spending less time outside.

The “ozone action day” title is also meant to encourage people to avoid activities that can lead to ozone formation, including refueling vehicles, using gas-powered lawn equipment, and using charcoal lighter fluid.

“At the earth’s surface, ozone comes into direct contact with life-forms and displays its destructive side (hence, it is often called ‘bad ozone’),” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. “Because ozone reacts strongly with other molecules, high levels of ozone are toxic to living systems.”

Officials say the bad ozone may continue to affect Southeast Michigan for the next few days, at least.

“With winds at all levels of the atmosphere coming from the hot southwest, Air Quality will certainly be an issue, this week,” according to AirNow.gov, a federal platform created through a partnership with the EPA, CDC, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and more.

—> Heat wave hits Metro Detroit this week: What to know

What causes “bad” ozone?

“Bad” ozone is found at ground level. In cities, it’s made when emissions from vehicles, power plants, chemical plants, and other sources react with heat and sunlight. The hotter the day and the stronger the sun, the more ozone is formed. That’s why ozone is usually worst on windless, hot summer afternoons. High levels of ozone are mainly a concern for people from April 1–September 30.

You’re most likely to find high levels of “bad” ozone in urban areas. You might hear it called “smog.” However, other areas can also have high ozone levels when winds blow pollution hundreds of miles from their original sources.

How does “bad” ozone affect people?

Even at low levels, breathing ozone can cause chest pains, coughing, and throat irritation. It can also aggravate lung diseases like emphysema, bronchitis, and asthma. The more ozone pollution a person breathes, the more permanent damage it can do to her lungs.

Because it usually forms in hot weather, anyone who spends time outdoors in the summer may be affected – children, older people, outdoor workers, and people exercising may be particularly susceptible. The higher the ozone level, the more people who will experience health symptoms. Millions of Americans live in areas where ozone levels are higher than the national health standards, and should pay attention to ozone levels when the weather is hot and sunny.

Staying safe amid air quality alert

Follow these simple tips to stay safe when there is an air quality alert:

• Stay inside if possible, particularly if you have respiratory concerns or other health problems, are a senior or child.

• If you must go out, try to limit the amount of time you are out to strictly essential activities.

• Minimize your use of items that increase pollution, such as cars, gas powered lawn mowers and other vehicles.

• Do not burn debris or other items during an air quality alert.

• Take the bus, carpool, telecommute, bike, or walk. You’ll reduce traffic congestion and air pollution as well as save money.

• If you plan to barbecue, use an electric starter or charcoal chimney instead of lighter fluid. Fumes from the fluid contribute to ozone formation.

• Avoid drive-thru facilities or other situations where your vehicle idles for an extended period of time. You’ll save money on gas and reduce pollution.

Who is most at risk?

Several groups of people are particularly sensitive to ozone, especially when they are active outdoors. This is because ozone levels are higher outdoors, and physical activity causes faster and deeper breathing, drawing more ozone into the body.

• People with lung diseases, such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema, can be particularly sensitive to ozone. They will generally experience more serious health effects at lower levels. Ozone can aggravate their diseases, leading to increased medication use, doctor and emergency room visits, and hospital admissions.

• Children, including teenagers, are at higher risk from ozone exposure because they often play outdoors in warmer weather when ozone levels are higher, they are more likely to have asthma (which may be aggravated by ozone exposure), and their lungs are still developing.

• Older adults may be more affected by ozone exposure, possibly because they are more likely to have pre-existing lung disease.

• Active people of all ages who exercise or work vigorously outdoors are at increased risk.

• Some healthy people are more sensitive to ozone. They may experience health effects at lower ozone levels than the average person even though they have none of the risk factors listed above. There may be a genetic basis for this increased sensitivity.

In general, as concentrations of ground-level ozone increase, more people begin to experience more serious health effects. When levels are very high, everyone should be concerned about ozone exposure.

What are the health effects?

Ozone affects the lungs and respiratory system in many ways. It can:

• Irritate the respiratory system, causing coughing, throat soreness, airway irritation, chest tightness, or chest pain when taking a deep breath.

• Reduce lung function, making it more difficult to breathe as deeply and vigorously as you normally would, especially when exercising. Breathing may start to feel uncomfortable, and you may notice that you are taking more rapid and shallow breaths than normal.

The risk of exposure to unhealthy levels of ground-level ozone is greatest during warmer months. Children, who often play outdoors in warmer weather, are at higher risk.

• Inflame and damage the cells that line the lungs. Within a few days, the damaged cells are replaced and the old cells are shed—much like the way your skin peels after sunburn. Studies suggest that if this type of inflammation happens repeatedly, lung tissue may become permanently scarred and lung function may be permanently reduced.

• Make the lungs more susceptible to infection. Ozone reduces the lung’s defenses by damaging the cells that move particles and bacteria out of the airways and by reducing the number and effectiveness of white blood cells in the lungs.

• Aggravate asthma. When ozone levels are unhealthy, more people with asthma have symptoms that require a doctor’s attention or the use of medication. Ozone makes people more sensitive to allergens—the most common triggers for asthma attacks. Also, asthmatics may be more severely affected by reduced lung function and airway inflammation. People with asthma should ask their doctor for an asthma action plan and follow it carefully when ozone levels are unhealthy.

• Aggravate other chronic lung diseases such as emphysema and bronchitis. As concentrations of ground-level ozone increase, more people with lung disease visit doctors or emergency rooms and are admitted to the hospital.

• Cause permanent lung damage. Repeated short-term ozone damage to children’s developing lungs may lead to reduced lung function in adulthood. In adults, ozone exposure may accelerate the natural decline in lung function that occurs with age.

Sources: AQI, NWS, EPA, SEMCOG.

With the US presidential election less than five months away, former president Donald Trump and the Republicans are seeking to capitalize on mass anger among workers and youth against President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party over their war-mongering and anti-worker policies. Michigan, with a population of over 10 million people and 15 Electoral College votes, is viewed by both campaigns as a “must win” state.

To this end, the “People’s Convention” organized by Turning Point USA, a fascistic political organization headed by Charlie Kirk, held a political convention in Detroit this weekend. It was one of several major right-wing events recently held, or scheduled to be held, by Trump-aligned elements in Detroit. The week prior, Christian pastor Clay Travis and retired Gen. Michael Flynn, formerly Trump’s national security advisor, hosted the “ReAwaken America” tour in Detroit.

The People’s Convention lasted three days and featured dozens of Republican politicians, media personalities and fascist ideologues, including ex-president Trump.

In his Saturday night speech, Trump hit all of his reactionary talking points, repeatedly attacking immigrants and “globalists.” As he does in almost every appearance, Trump promised that on his first day in office he would close the US-Mexico border and began mass deportations.

Virtually every speaker at the event sang Trump’s praises and repeated variations of his campaign staples, including Republican Representatives Eli Crane (Arizona), Byron Donalds (Florida), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia) and Matt Gaetz (Florida). Several of Trump’s January 6, 2021 co-conspirators participated in the event as well, including Alex Jones of InfoWars, Jack Posobiec, Steve Bannon and Roger Stone.

The concluding speech was given on Sunday by Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. After the event concluded, a Trump vice presidential straw poll was conducted among the attendees, with Vance garnering 43 percent of the vote, nearly three times as many as the second place finisher, Senator Tim Scott (South Carolina). Florida Senator Marco Rubio and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum received 7.7 and 7.0 percent, respectively.

Of the over 10 million people who live in Michigan, close to 4 million reside in the Metro Detroit area, which includes the counties of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb. According to 2022 census figures, nearly half a million people in Detroit are African-American. In the 2020 election, Trump sought to invalidate the nearly 800,000 votes cast in Wayne County, which includes Detroit, as part of his bid to retain power after losing to Biden.

According to research by Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan, some 40 percent of the population in Metro Detroit is “poor” or “struggling to afford the basic cost of living,” even while holding a job. One of the major costs for workers and their families is housing, with nearly 34 percent of Metro Detroit residents “cost burdened” by housing, meaning they spend over 30 percent of their income on their rent or mortgage payment.

The same research found that as of March 2024, seven percent of Metro Detroit residents did not have health insurance and over 14 percent were receiving food stamps.

While inflation is eating away at workers’ paychecks around the world, Detroit faces one of the highest rates of inflation in the US. According to recently published data by WalletHub, year-to-year inflation in Detroit is 3.5 percent, the fifth highest out of 23 major metropolitan areas studied by the company. Honolulu, Hawaii had the highest rate at 5.2 percent, followed by Dallas at 5 percent, Seattle at 4.4 percent and San Francisco at 3.8 percent.

In a bid to capitalize on the brutal impact of inflation and social cuts under President Joe Biden, Trump held a “Church Roundtable” event at a Black church in Detroit prior to speaking at the Turning Point convention. In an interview with the Detroit Free Press, Rev. Lorenzo Sewell of 180 Church said he supported neither Biden nor Trump, and was “shocked” to have received a call from the Trump campaign.

Introducing Trump, Sewell said he was “so humbled that you would be here,” adding, “President Obama never came to the hood, so to speak. President Joe Biden, he went to the big NAACP dinner, but he never came to the hood, so thank you.”

Prior to event, the Trump campaign announced the formation of the “Black Americans for Trump” voter outreach group. Members of the group include Rep. Donalds; former Detroit Mayor and convicted fraudster and racketeer Kwame Kilpatrick; rappers Sexyy Red, Kodak Black and 50 Cent; boxer Mike Tyson and former Yankee and Met outfielder Daryl Strawberry.

In his comments, Trump sought to pit worker against worker along the lines of race and immigration status. He blamed Biden for allowing “millions of illegal aliens” to “pour in” and take “your jobs.”

Trump declared that the “Black community” was “getting hurt more by the illegal aliens… That are affecting African-Americans, and after that, the Hispanic Americans, more than any group.”

Repeating his standard fascistic agitation against migrant workers, he added, “We are being inundated with… terrorists at levels we have never seen before.”

Following Trump’s brief remarks, Rev. Sewell said a closing prayer in which he noted that Trump “was charged with 34 felonies, then he raised $53 million in 24 hours and he has the potential to be the 47th president.”

Sewell asked God to “speak to [Trump]… visit him with wisdom… Lift his hands up so that our country perhaps would be great again. And we believe specifically for Black America that you would make Black America great again.”

In its report on Trump’s visit to the 180 Church, the Washington Post wrote that not a single person it interviewed at the event actually attended the church.

On June 15, the same night that Trump spoke at the Turning Point USA conference, a past Thanksgiving dinner guest of Trump’s, neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, had planned to convene the fourth “America First Political Action Conference” at the Russell Industrial Center in Detroit. However, Fuentes wrote on social media Saturday that the event was canceled after the venue called the police on him.

In an interview in the Detroit Free Press, an official with the center said it had been “tricked” by a third party into hosting Fuentes’ fascist conference. In a statement to the newspaper, a spokesman for the venue said:

The event was canceled due to fraudulent, knowing misrepresentation of the true nature of the event by the production company for their client, and our concern of safety for our faculty, employees, tenants, and the surrounding communities. The amount of hate mail we’ve been receiving and terrible things being said towards us by the AFPAC following is disturbing and only affirms our decision as the right one.

The day before his rally was canceled, Fuentes, former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter Jake Shields and other America First “groypers” crashed the Turning Point USA conference. After being quickly escorted out by security, Fuentes held a rally outside the venue, where he praised “the great industrialist Henry Ford” for “exposing the Jewish mafia.”

A Saturday night shooting on Detroit’s east side left one woman dead and four other people injured, according to police.

Detroit police responded to the shooting in the 17800 block of Albion Street around 11:30 p.m. Saturday. Four females were shot, ranging in age from 14 to 20; one died. A fifth victim was a man in his 20s. The surviving victims’ conditions range from stable to serious.

Justin Hearn, a spokesperson for Detroit police, said Sunday afternoon that the circumstances surrounding the shooting are unknown at the time.

That same day, two other mass shootings were reported in metro Detroit: one in Lathrup Village, where six people were shot, and another in Rochester Hills, where a gunman unloaded 28 rounds at families gathered at a splash pad, shooting 9 people, including children.

More: Rochester Hills splash pad shooting: What we know about victims, suspect

The suspect in the Detroit shooting is still at large, Hearn said, but police believe there is no ongoing threat to the public.

Andrea Sahouri covers criminal justice for the Detroit Free Press. She can be contacted at 313-264-0442 or asahouri@freepress.com.