“You have permission to be a couch potato," says AQRC Director Tony Wexler. Recent wildfires across the state of California have caused ash to rain down on cities miles away from evacuation zones. The haze from these fires is a result of tiny particles in the air clouding our views. Director Wexler along with Dr. Mary Prunicki, director of air pollution and health research at Stanford University’s Sean N. Parker Center for Asthma and Allergy Research, advises everyone to stay indoors as much as possible while the fires rage across the state. 

If it is necessary to go outside, you should be watching the current air quality conditions online through various air quality monitoring platforms and adjusting your schedule based upon the current conditions. When the time comes to venture into the haze, the directors recommend wearing N95 masks snugly fit across your face because they filter 95% of the particulate matter in the air. 

Here are some reliable resources for monitoring the air quality:

• Air Now (https://www.airnow.gov/) - this is the most authoritative source for almost current conditions because the measurements are usually 1-2 hours delayed.  The interactive map allows you to review the AQ on a local or state wide scale and uses the official Air Quality Index to visualize the conditions. Measurements are usually 1-2 hours delayed. 
• Spare the Air (http://www.sparetheair.com/aqirealtime.cfm) – this uses the same data as Air Now but focuses on the Greater Sacramento region of Northern California. 
• Purple Air (https://www.purpleair.com/map?opt=1/i/mAQI/a0/cC0#10.18/38.54/-121.6866) – this map shows small sensors of particles in the area. These sensors show current conditions, so can be helpful to understand right now, when the official data are still lagging. 

Read more about the need to mask-up due to the wildfires from Bernard Wolfson's article Wildfires Provide Another Reason to Mask Up on California Healthline's News.