Impact of wildfires shows sports is going to have to adapt to new reality

This is a column by Morgan Campbell, who writes opinion for CBC Sports. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ.

By 8 a.m. Wednesday morning, smoke drifting south from wildfires in northern Ontario and Quebec had made the view outside my hotel room in Philadelphia a little smudgy, but I could still make out details — windows, balconies, chimneys — on the east bank of the Delaware River.

The outdoor air was far from pristine, but breathable nonetheless. I headed out for a five-kilometre trot, and felt few effects besides a slight scratchiness in my nostrils. A routine allergy-season run.

But by early afternoon, the haze had settled at street level. You could see the smoke in front of you, and smell it when you breathed. Now it tickled my throat. If I had started my run at mid-day, the air would have made my chest burn.

I had just left a boxing gym in Northeast Philly, where athletes, with one eye on their smartphone weather apps, warned each other against training outside in the dirty air. Soon talk turned to the source of the pollution, and the gym banter echoed that old joke from South Park.

Blame Canada.

WATCH | Why are Canada's wildfires becoming more severe?:

The head coach remembered that I had recently arrived from Toronto, and quickly singled me out.

"He's from Canada!" he shouted, pointing in my direction. "He must have brought all that smoke down here with him!"

I laughed and nodded and played along.

"I heard Philly fighters were tough, and y'all wanted all the smoke," I answered. "So, yeah, I brought the smoke."

We laughed some more, but the situation outdoors, in Philadelphia, New York, Toronto and beyond was serious. By Thursday morning in Philadelphia, the Air Quality Index, measured on a 500-point scale, had reached 364. The previous day in New York — 484.

If you need me to tell you, I will.

Those readings mean outdoor exercise fits somewhere along the spectrum between dangerous, unsafe, and merely unwise.