Wildfire Smoke and a Lettuce Recall: Quite a Week:
Canadian wildfire smoke settled over the Laurel Highlands last week, and a national iceberg lettuce recall over a cyclospora outbreak is one more thing to watch.
It has been a strange stretch of summer.
For much of last week, the sky over the Laurel Highlands went the color of an old nickel. The smoke came down from Canada, where thousands of wildfires have burned more than six million acres this season, and it settled over a big piece of the country. As of this Tuesday, it has not entirely cleared.
We got off easy compared to some. The worst of the haze landed on the big cities to our north and west, where air quality alerts sent people back indoors and had them digging out masks they thought they were done with. Chicago, Detroit and New York had it far worse than we did. We were spared the thick of it, and we felt for everyone who was not.
Here in the east, we are lucky. We do not live with the fires that torment the West Coast, the ones that burn whole towns off the map. But a sky full of Canadian smoke in the middle of July is its own kind of warning. The weather is not what it used to be, and it is fair to expect more weeks like this one, not fewer.
Lettuce Recall
While we were all looking up, there was reason to look down at our plates too. A national recall has pulled iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico off shelves in more than two dozen states, including Marketside-brand lettuce sold at Walmart. Federal health officials have linked it to an outbreak of cyclospora, a parasite that brings on long stretches of nasty stomach trouble. The outbreak has been centered in the Midwest, but the affected lettuce first turned up at Taco Bell locations in Ohio and West Virginia, close enough to home to pay attention.
If you have iceberg lettuce in the fridge, check the brand and the best-by date. When in doubt, throw it out. It is not worth a week of misery over a salad.
So keep an eye on the sky and an eye on the crisper drawer. It is that kind of summer. We will get through it the way we get through most things out here, together, and with a little common sense.