The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency declared an Air Pollution Action Day today in the Chicago Metropolitan area due to elevated particle pollution caused by Canadian wildfire smoke.

Here’s what you should know about best practices and who’s likely to be most affected.

What is an Action Day?

Action Days are typically called when the air quality index, also known as the AQI, gets into unhealthy ranges, according to the U.S. AQI website.

In Illinois, an Air Pollution Action Day is issued when the air quality is forecast to be at or above the Orange category for two or more consecutive days, meaning the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

The Illinois EPA said in a news release that wildfire smoke would likely continue to have an impact on particulate levels in the northern third of Illinois, with Orange AQI levels on June 4th and June 5th, posing a potential health hazard to sensitive populations. Surface smoke may also have impacts further south in areas with a Moderate/Yellow forecast.

Where is Action Day being issued?

The Action Day includes the counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Grundy, Lake, McHenry and Will, according to the Illinois EPA.

What should you do on Action Days?

The EPA recommends businesses and residents take part in the following activities to reduce air pollution:

•  Limit Driving – combine errands, walk, or bike if possible.
• If driving, avoid idling, consolidate errands and keep your vehicle and other engines properly tuned.
• Conserve energy to reduce energy demands.
• Use environmentally friendly household and cleaning products.
• Avoid using gasoline-powered equipment like lawnmowers and leaf blowers.
• Notify colleagues, friends and family to help protect their health and encourage actions.

Who is most at risk?

Those most at risk due to air pollution are individuals with respiratory or pulmonary disorders, as well as children and adults who are active outdoors.

People in these groups should follow their doctor’s advice and look out for symptoms like wheezing, coughing, a fast heartbeat, fatigue, chest pain and shortness of breath. If symptoms worsen, you should call your physician or 911.

AQI scale explained

Here’s a breakdown of the EPA’s AQI scale for those who are unaware:

• Good (0 to 50): Air quality is satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk.
• Moderate (51 to 100): Air quality is acceptable. However, there may be a risk for some people, particularly those who are unusually sensitive to air pollution.
• Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (101 to 150): Members of sensitive groups may experience health effects. The general public is less likely to be affected.
• Unhealthy (151 to 200): Some members of the general public may experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects.
• Very Unhealthy (201 to 300): Health alert. The risk of health effects is increased for everyone.
• Hazardous (301 and higher): Health warning of emergency conditions. Everyone is more likely to be affected.

Air quality map

A swastika mowed into a front lawn in the tiny village of Alhambra, Illinois, prompted a hate crime investigation by Madison County authorities this week, local media reported, in the latest in a series of disturbing incidents where Jews have been the target across the United States.

Jordan Payne, who has lived in the 700-person village since 1987, discovered the giant Nazi emblem while out walking over the weekend.

He told First Alert 4 that he was “very surprised to see Nazi insignia carved into the lawn with a mower.”“It’s a slap in the face, a scar on our village,” Payne said.

The property owner, construction manager Mike Eaton, denied involvement and said he cut the grass as soon as neighbors alerted him to the existence of the symbol.

Alhambra’s city attorney and local police were determining whether the act met the legal threshold for a hate crime. Nearby residents expressed shock; one told St. Louis-based Fox 2, “We don’t want to see this kind of hate in our town.”

A swastika mowed into the grass of a lawn in Alhambra is now at the center of an investigation and drawing concern from advocates across the St. Louis region. https://t.co/sG5Zndathl

— KMOV (@KMOV) June 3, 2025

Helen Turner, the director of education at the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum, said that the vandalism fits a wider pattern.

“History doesn’t repeat itself, it rhymes,” she told First Alert 4, warning that antisemitic rhetoric often “quickly escalates into violence.”

National climate of hate

The Illinois case emerged just days after an Egyptian national wielding a makeshift flamethrower wounded at least 12 people at a pro-Israel rally in Boulder, Colorado.

Federal prosecutors said the suspect shouted “free Palestine” and sought to “kill all Zionist people.”

The Anti-Defamation League’s 2024 audit recorded 8,873 antisemitic incidents nationwide, the highest number since the organization began tracking this in 1979. 

Illinois alone saw a 74% jump between 2022 and 2023, with 211 cases ranging from harassment to assault.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also denounced the lawn vandalism, calling the swastika “a symbol of hate and genocide that has no place in a civilized society.”

CAIR-Chicago executive director Ahmed Rehab urged authorities “to take the promotion of bigotry seriously and to address it whenever and wherever it occurs.”

CAIR spokesperson Ibrahim Hooper said the organization “stands in solidarity with all those challenging antisemitism, systemic anti-black racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, white supremacy, and all other forms of bigotry.”

‘We will prosecute’

Turner stressed the need for swift legal action. “It typically begins with words, but it very quickly escalates into violence. The only counter to that is for our society to say, ‘These actions have no place here. We will prosecute.’”

As Pride Month began on June 1, local LGBTQ+ advocates noted parallels between rising antisemitism and a documented 80 % spike in anti-LGBTQ+ threats since 2023, according to a new GLAAD report.

For now, investigators in Alhambra were still piecing together how the swastika came to be on the lawn.

Payne said that the hateful emblem did not reflect his hometown’s values: “This isn’t who we are.”