Millions Of Texans Told Not To Go Outside This Weekend!

James Kaufman, World News Report, today, April 12, 2025. God bless you and yours, no matter where you are in the world. Please subscribe, give us a thumbs up, ring that bell for critical future updates. One million kids in Texas have been told not to go outside tomorrow. Nearly one million children in Texas have been advised to limit outdoor activities and exposure on Saturday as major urban areas brace for potentially unhealthy air conditions. An air quality forecast from the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA, shows large portions of the state, including Houston, El Paso, and Austin, falling into the orange zone. Significant pollution levels that are very unhealthy, especially for sensitive groups. Health officials define sensitive groups to include children, older adults, and individuals with pre-existing respiratory conditions. Latest data from the U.S. Census shows the combined population of children under 18 in just Houston and Austin exceeds 800,000. El Paso is also expected air quality into the orange zones. U.S. census data anticipates there are approximately 170,000 children under 18 in El Paso. We're not even talking about the folks with respiratory conditions and older adults. We can add several million to the list if we want to include them. Children are especially vulnerable to ozone pollution. Which forms when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds react to sunlight, the resulting ground-level ozone can trigger a range of health issues, including coughing, wheezing, and difficulty breathing, even in otherwise healthy children. For those with asthma, the consequences can be even more severe. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, TCEQ. has issued Ozone Action Day alerts for April 12th across several major metropolitan areas including Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio. These alerts are triggered when ozone levels are expected to exceed 100 on the EPA's Air Quality Index, AQI, crossing into the unhealthy for sensitive groups range. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality the TCEQ has issued Ozone Action Day alerts for April 12th and 13th across several major metropolitan areas, including Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio. These alerts are triggered when ozone levels are expected to exceed 100 on the EPA's air quality index seen here, crossing into the very unhealthy for sensitive groups range. So for today and for tomorrow, they're expecting unhealthy for sensitive groups, which really, folks, even the moderate PM2.5 is extremely unhealthy. The World Health Organization says that just 10 parts per million, not 50, increases your lung cancer percentage by quite a bit. The reason these conditions are especially concerning for school-aged children is because of the time they spend outside, i.e. playing or sporting activities, etc. The EPA has suggested and recommends reducing physical activities outdoors. During both the 12th and 13th, if we're in the orange air quality range, ozone action day alerts are only indicative of forecasts, and TCEQ told Newsweek that it doesn't necessarily mean the air quality will be poor. In the days leading up to Saturday and Sunday's forecast, several regions in Texas already experienced similar air quality concerns. On April 9th, the TCEQ issued an Ozone Action Day for Houston, Galveston, and Brazoria areas urging millions of residents to reduce emissions by avoiding drive-through lanes and limiting overall driving during peak sunlight hours. So they don't want us driving either. A day later, on April 10th, the TCEQ extended ozone pollution alerts to include four of the state's largest metropolitan areas, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio, citing atmospheric conditions conducive to elevated ozone levels, including strong sunlight, high temperatures, and light winds. AirNow's forecast for Saturday and Sunday anticipates air quality reaching the orange Parts of southern New Mexico as well. Now, we don't see a lot of orange here except for the central plains and over in California, but head over to weather.gov. It's updated every few moments. We have extremely bad air quality all over the Houston-Harris County area, Galveston, and Brazoria County areas, along with South Austin. God bless you and yours folks. Stay safe. I'm going for a walk. Please share, subscribe, and always remember, anything's possible. Bizarro world.