Wildfire smoke drifting down from Canada has left much of the U.S. Northeast and upper Midwest coughing under a haze of orange skies. Even those limiting their outside exposure and in relative sound health are still sucking in potentially unhealthy levels of particulate matter.
For the elderly, pregnant people, young children and those with already compromised health, this exposure is very risky.
Here’s what you need to know on the dangers of wildfire smoke, including much of what you can’t see with the naked eye, and why it is potentially so toxic to your health.
Read: New York City has the worst air quality in the world right now
Related: When will the smoke clear? Canadian wildfires could impact U.S. air quality for days
And, we take a look at pollution concerns only made worse by wildfires. These issues existed long before wildfires made headlines in New York and beyond this week. Importantly, as public-health officials stress, the impact of climate change could make pollution issues and the scramble for their solutions more common in coming years.
What is considered a dangerous air quality level?
Air quality is measured by the Environmental Protection Agency’s air quality index (AQI), which ranges from 0 to 500.
A higher level indicates a greater level of pollution and health concern.
Levels under 100 are generally considered safe. Unhealthy levels range from 101 to 300, and more-sensitive groups may experience symptoms at lower levels.
Although other factors contribute to a score as well, wildfire smoke is driving up AQI readings in New York, Washington D.C. and elsewhere. New York city earned the dubious honor of most-polluted city this week, by one measure, its reading climbing to nearly 300.
The EPA provides an interactive map to track air quality in your specific area. And the global site IQAir tracks daily U.S. and international levels, ranking cities.
Read: Here’s the Air-Quality Index of cities in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest as Canadian wildfires put many under air quality advisories.
Don’t miss: I grew up with hazardous smoke from forest fires in Asia. Here’s what I learned.
What dangers are hiding within bad air?
The EPA established an AQI for five major air pollutants regulated by the 50-year-old Clean Air Act. The agency takes readings at more than 1,000 air-quality stations around the country and includes special sensors activated by smoke in particular, for real-time readings.
Each of these pollutants measured by the EPA requires a standard deemed important to public health:
- ground-level ozone
- particle pollution (also known as particulate matter, including PM2.5 and PM10)
- carbon monoxide
- sulfur dioxide
- nitrogen dioxide
Particulate matter (PM) is made up of tiny pieces of solid or liquid in the air including dust, dirt, soot and smoke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Inhaled particles are typically categorized into two groups: PM10 and PM2.5 — the number representing the size across the particle in micrometers.
These particles are invisible to the human eye. For instance, the diameter of a human hair is almost 30 times larger than one of these smaller particles.
While larger particles may irritate your eyes, nose and throat, smaller particles pose an even greater threat. They can seep deep into your lungs or even your blood and like a gritty irritant, cause long-term damage.
By one estimate, exposure to an AQI of 150 for longer than just a few minutes is equivalent to smoking some seven cigarettes a day. And, since most cigarettes sold today are filtered, the consumption of wildfire smoke closer resembles the impact of smoking unfiltered cigarettes.
It’s these small particles that can aggravate or bring on asthma. They can limit your body’s natural immune responses, leaving you vulnerable to more colds and flu.
And in older people especially, particulate matter adds to the risk of stroke or heart attack, even certain cancers.
Even indoor air can pose risks
Seeking refuge indoors does not guarantee clean air. Even with windows shut, the smoke and pollutants from the wildfires can easily infiltrate indoor spaces through openings, leading to higher concentrations of harmful substances.
This is especially true of PM2.5, airborne particulate matter smaller than 1/70th the diameter of a human hair— which can contain dangerous levels of heavy metals and other toxins, warns the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association.
The trade group says that homeowners and renters worried about the quality of indoor air and a space’s ability to circulate fresh air can engage a certified technician to conduct a Ventilation Verification Assessment. The assessment provides crucial data for a professional to recommend any corrective actions to help combat pollutants in both the indoor and outdoor air, such as adding HEPA filters or other upgrades.
Read: Do smoky skies have you shopping for an air purifier? 5 things to know before you buy one
Can masks help with wildfire smoke?
An N95 respirator mask can filter out some of the particles, say health officials. If fitted and worn correctly, the N95 mask filters out 95% of particles larger than 0.3 microns, so they’re very efficient with keeping out the 2.5-micron particles in wildfire smoke.
Or, you can check out mask respirators made for the construction trades and found at home-improvement stores.
Notably, even an N95 does little to protect against harmful gases in wildfire smoke, including carbon monoxide.
Why health professionals say this is a wake-up call
When deadly wildfires burned during record years for blazes in 2020 and 2021 in California and the U.S. Pacific Northwest, the medical profession worked harder to help the public tie climate change to the devastation.
While wildfires certainly aren’t new and lightning strikes are often their source of ignition, it is longer, dryer and hotter summers tied to a warming Earth that can spread the damage.
Hotter temperatures evaporate more moisture from soil and vegetation, drying out trees, shrubs and grasses and turning leaf litter and fallen branches into kindling, says the Environmental Defense Fund.
What’s more, real estate development means that humans are increasingly blurring the lines between the natural world and man-made conveniences. That not only means more chance for human-sparked fire ignition but a greater chance that the dwellings and vegetation nearby also act as accelerants when a fire flares. The greater the development, the more difficult it’s becoming to administer controlled burns and other fire-prevention measures.
Dr. Lisa Patel, a pediatrician and the executive director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, has said that the wildfire stories of recent years are an example of the acute impacts of climate change. “Wildfire smoke is 10 times more harmful to children’s respiratory health than other types of air pollution,” she says. A Stanford study agrees.
Don’t miss: Biden says Canadian wildfires are ‘another stark reminder of the impacts of climate change’
And, as Christine Wiedinmyer, an atmospheric chemist at the University of Colorado Boulder, told Scientific American, Americans can’t rest on the idea that the risks of this wildfire danger won’t return.
“I’m concerned about what this means for the rest of the season. We’re only in June — early June. And so there’s a possibility that we could be in for a smoky summer across the country,” she told the publication.
We shouldn’t wait for wildfire headlines to talk about bad air
Wildfires aside, it’s worth bearing in mind that foul air “is what a huge percentage of the world’s people breathe every single day of their lives,” says environmental policy writer Bill McKibben, as reported on Climate Matters, an advocacy for climate-change journalism.
The air is thick and dark in New Delhi, Beijing, Shanghai and other cities mainly because of burning emissions-creating fossil fuels
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not wildfires, but it’s all part of the same climate crisis, McKibben added.
In the U.S. alone, 40% of the population lives in areas with unhealthy air quality, according to the 2022 State of the Air report from the American Lung Association.
Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, a pulmonologist who is the national spokesperson for the American Lung Association, told MarketWatch that he was most unsettled by the latest report’s evidence of the rise in non-smoking lung cancers.
“We have to understand that pollution’s impact on our bodies is growing and we just can’t easily dismiss this evidence,” he said.
When it comes to air quality and the ability to breathe easy, location matters.
Read: State Farm cracks down on California wildfire insurance. What it means for all homeowners.
Forbes Health collected data across seven metrics, essentially tying in location , lifestyle and other factors to paint a more complete snapshot of what many Americans seem to accept as consequences they can tolerate, or perhaps can’t escape because of the cost of relocating, finding a job or missing family.
Those factors are: air quality, elevation, population density, vehicle use, smoking prevalence, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) prevalence and asthma prevalence—for 250 of the most populated cities in the U.S. The results paint an intriguing picture of the locations where it’s hardest (and easiest) to breathe.
Using these parameters, Phoenix ranked at the top of the list as the U.S. city where it’s most difficult to breathe, largely due to its poor air quality ranking. In fact, Phoenix claims sixth place for poor air quality nationally, tying with Glendale, Calif., outside Los Angeles, which ranks second for overall breathing difficulty. San Bernardino, Calif., ranked as the third most difficult city for breathing in the U.S. in part due to California’s heavy reliance on vehicles, which contributes to overall air quality.
Here’s a snapshot of the Forbes Health list. You can access additional findings here.
The point is, there are plenty of factors that can make it difficult to breathe without issues long before Canadian wildfire smoke took over Manhattan.
According to the Forbes Health tables, out of the 256 most populated U.S. cities analyzed, New York City already ranked 64th worst.
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