well throughout the Garden State hazardous orange colored air turned mostly into blue skies today some areas of the state though like Camden where County officials declared a code yellow warning today are still struggling with the lingering impacts of devastating Canadian wildfires but as Ted Goldberg reports Camden residents are feeling more optimistic about weather conditions that are expected to improve in the coming days seeing the Philadelphia skyline from Camden usually isn't that hard except at the end of a week that saw New Jersey coated in Orange smoke from Canadian wildfires severely limiting visibility it's very nice to see that the weather is actually clearing and that you cannot use can see at least half a mile from where you are it wasn't the case on Wednesday Camden Health officer Pascal nawaco says it's now safe for most people to walk around Outdoors the code yellow declared in the county means outdoor activities aren't being canceled anymore but some folks should still be careful it's clearing but there's still some particulate matter in the air that we cannot see with our eyes so that's why we tell people with respiratory illnesses to be indoors but it's better than being very high in the 200s of aqi that means that everybody should stay out uh try to stay indoors out of the environment Camden's air quality index or aqi was 96 this morning a far cry from the 302 aqi seen earlier this week in parts of the county the Smoky Skies that stifled the state were a result of massive wildfires and certain weather conditions according to National Weather Service meteorologist Alex Dodd we've had this stubborn area of low pressure just sitting to our Northeast over New England and with the counterclockwise flow around low pressure drying air from north to south straight down from Quebec that's just been sending all that Wildflower smoke down from Quebec across New York State and in New Jersey which is kind of a perfect setup meteorologically to to draw that that smoke right into our area there's numerous studies showing that when air pollution reaches these high levels that more people go to the hospital for their asthma for their COPD some of those people have unfortunately very serious outcomes yesterday New Jersey Health commissioner Judith persicelli said Statewide ER visits jumped for people with asthma approaching levels not seen since the winter Rutgers Professor Robert lombach says those Health impacts are felt disproportionately in places like Camden people of color people have low income are more likely to have asthma and COPD they're also less likely to be able to access care as readily when when they need care such as you know accessing medication and and so forth Cooper Health pulmonologist ocean abramian agrees I think the biggest concern with the counting candy is the underrepresented individuals who don't have the ability to get PPE or to be covered with protection those are the people that unfortunately probably had this ongoing exposure and those are the ones that probably the most low recently the air quality in Camden like the rest of New Jersey is expected to get better over the week just in case that doesn't happen nuako says the city's office of emergency management is giving out bundles of masks to anyone in the county who wants them for free nuako also says the office is working with schools and senior citizen centers to make sure the most vulnerable populations in Camden have the masks that they need in Camden I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight news [Music] [Music]