The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) has released a revised edition of the Washington Children and Youth Activities Guide for Air Quality.    

For more than six months, DOH has worked alongside stakeholders to create improved guidance that will benefit children when air quality is compromised.

The revised guide is now available on DOH’s Smoke from Fires Took Kit Page. 

In addition to the many improvements to the guide, there are three specific changes to highlight: 

• Improved clarity to “activity duration” to make the recommendations more generally applicable to the broad range of children and youth outdoor activities. This now includes activities over 4 hours.

• DOH’s recommendation is to consider canceling outdoor activities of 1-4 hours in duration at Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (AQI 101-150), which includes all children and youth ages 18 and under, and cancel outdoor activities of all durations at Unhealthy (AQI 151-200) unless they can be moved to safer air quality. There are additional options to modify the intensity level or duration of activities.

• Detailed information is now included on indoor/outdoor air quality monitoring with low-cost sensors.

DOH is currently working to translate the guide into Spanish, Russian, and Somali.

If you have any questions, please email the DOH air quality team at airquality@doh.wa.gov.