Smoke, ragweed, and a September lease: the air-quality check nobody does

Most people tour an apartment in the middle of a nice week and think about the kitchen. Then they move in on September 1 — the biggest lease-turnover date in the city — and discover the building has one window that opens, no cooling, and a lobby door that's been propped open since July.

Late August is the worst possible time to be casual about air. Ragweed season in southern Ontario runs from mid-August to the first hard frost, usually peaking around mid-September. And smoke is now a normal summer risk: in mid-July, wildfire smoke drifting in from northwestern Ontario briefly put Toronto among the worst air quality readings in the world.

Two different problems, two different seasons

• Wildfire smoke is episodic and citywide. It doesn't care which neighbourhood you picked — it cares whether your unit can seal up and filter.
• Pollen is seasonal and local. Ragweed likes disturbed ground: rail corridors, vacant lots, road shoulders, construction edges. A ground-floor unit backing onto a scrubby laneway is a different experience in September than a tenth floor two blocks away.
• Industrial releases are year-round and fixed to the map. That's the NPRI record — a separate question from either of the above.

Reading the numbers without mixing them up

Two scales get quoted in Toronto, and they run in opposite directions:

• AQHI (Environment and Climate Change Canada) runs 1 to 10+, and higher is worse. Under the current alert program, a yellow air quality warning goes out when the AQHI is forecast to reach the high-risk category (7 or above), and orange when it reaches or is forecast to reach very high risk (10+).
• The Universal AQI used on our air quality page is scored out of 100, and higher is cleaner.

If you only remember one thing: a "7" and a "70" are not the same news. Check which scale you're looking at before you panic or relax.

What actually varies by building

Air quality on a bad day is mostly a building question, not a postal-code question:

• Do windows open, and how many? Cross-ventilation on a clear day, and the ability to shut it all down on a smoky one, are both worth asking about.
• Is there mechanical cooling? Ontario has moved to require landlords to keep units below a maximum summer temperature — see how to check your building's record. A unit with no A/C forces a bad trade on a smoke day: open the window or cook.
• Who changes the filters? Ask what the HVAC filter rating is and how often it's changed. A vague answer is an answer.
• Where does fresh air come in? Intakes over a loading dock, a drive-through lane, or a garage ramp are a permanent feature of the lease.

Before you sign

• Look up today's air quality and pollen for the actual address, not the neighbourhood.
• Ask the cooling and filter questions in writing, before the lease, not in October.
• Check whether the building has a record of maintenance and temperature complaints — a landlord who ignored the last heat wave will ignore the next smoke week.
• If you have asthma or a serious pollen allergy, treat "windows that open" and "cooling that works" as requirements, not preferences.

Check any address

Pull today's air quality and pollen for the address you're considering, then check the industrial facilities reporting nearby for the year-round picture. If it's an apartment building, the RentSafeTO report card shows how the common areas and mechanical systems have actually been maintained, and monitoring will email you when something new lands on the record.

Ten minutes now beats a September of sleeping with the window shut.

Air quality and pollen data are delivered by PropertyMonitorTO. AQHI values and alert thresholds come from Environment and Climate Change Canada. This is general information, not medical advice.