False air quality alert Fulton, Montgomery Counties
CAPITAL REGION, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- A pause for concern for some Capital Region residents after receiving alerts on their phones for air quality concerns in the area. But the messages were sent in error.
“I check the weather on a regular basis, see what I'm looking at. I popped on there, I think yesterday. It said something like the air quality was like 180 something,” said lifelong resident, Darrin Edgar.
Ed Nevulis who owns Nevulis Amusement in Amsterdam tells NEWS10’s James De La Fuente, “So I kept on looking at that for the last couple of days and seeing that it actually said that it was unhealthy.”
It was an unusual finding for residents of two counties. Some folks in Montgomery and Fulton County say their health concerns made them pay more attention to the poor air quality alerts. “I noticed that the air quality alert was pretty high. And there's a lot of people here where I live that have issues with breathing and stuff, and I want to know what was going on and if it was real,” said Gloversville resident, Johnny Loucks.
The Fulton and Montgomery County Sheriffs have put out announcements on their social media pages alerting the public that there were no problems with the air quality. “We started the check around and discovered that it's a problem with iPhones and Androids and they're getting false information alerts sent to their phones saying that we're in a hazardous condition for air quality in Montgomery County,” said Sheriff Smith.
Fulton County Sheriff, Richard Giardino, says his county is also experiencing the same messages.
A spokesperson with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation said they have an issue with their Utica air monitoring system and confirm there is no threat to air quality in Central New York. In a statement from the DEC they claim, “Bottom line is there are no air quality issues right now and we’re working to fix the issue with the monitor in Utica.”
It remains unclear how long the problem will persist.
Sheriff Smith said, “We want to clear it up because we certainly have had air quality issues in the past, and we only want to get that alert out to people when it's legitimate. And certainly, concern for our senior citizens and people with asthma and people that struggle with air quality issues.” The Sheriff went on to tell residents, “Go to airnow, A-I-R-N-O-W dot gov for true and accurate information pertaining to our air quality.”
NEWS10 has reached out to Apple for more on the alerts but have not heard back as of this posting.
Read the latest from NEWS10:
- Miranda Price reaches 1,000 career points in final seconds of Stillwater's stampede of Mechanicville
- Smith defends Trump prosecution as final Jan. 6 report released to the public
- False air quality alert Fulton, Montgomery Counties
- Sheriff calls on wildfire evacuees to be patient amid 'grim' search for bodies
- Los Angeles price gouging is 'inhumane': Real estate agent
NEWS10 is the Capital Region's local news leader!