It'll probably be impossible to count the number of deaths and illnesses caused by the smoke over the past month from all those wildfires in the West, but the situation is definitely creating health problems.
Given the current fire situation and weather forecasts, this state of affairs will likely go on for some time yet.
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| Dense smoke enshrouds Seattle last week. Photo by Sigma Sreedharan, via Twitter. |
The air quality has improved somewhat over the West in the past couple of days, at least temporarily, but several areas in the northern and central Rockies are still under air quality alerts.
Smoky, hazy skies still cover much of the United States.
The air is dangerous and deadly, and was downright scary at times along the West Coast. Seattle and Portland, Oregon had the worst air quality in the world last week. I'm sure you saw those images on the news of the creepy orange, dark daytime photos in the West.
Street lights stayed on all day, if you drove you needed your headlights, and everybody was warned to stay indoors to avoid the thick pollution.
According to The Guardian, Stanford University recorded hospital admissions for asthma rose by 10% and strokes jumped by 23% in the days following the first outbreaks of fires.
Even worse, this is all happening in the middle of a pandemic. The pollution very likely makes Covid cases worse, and increased the risk of serious illness for those exposed to the virus.
In buildings, you want a lot of outside air flowing in to HVAC systems to help flush Covid viruses floating in the air out of the structure. But during these wildfire smoke sieges, HVAC systems had to be switched to recirculate to keep the dangerous wildfire particles out. So much for flushing rooms with outdoor air.
The smoke was so thick that it would seep into houses, making the indoor air dangerous, too. Air filtration systems sold out quickly. Residents resorted to making "MacGyver Fans" to purify the air. (People are attaching furnace filters to the front of box fans to purify indoor air).
Generally healthy people have a lot of capacity for their lungs to self-heal after dealing with pollution. As people get older, their lung capacity diminishes. If pollution is persistent, will a lot of these younger, healthy people end up with lousy lungs at an earlier age than they otherwise would have?
A lot of scientists say yes.
The longer the exposure to pollution and the thicker the pollution, the worse it gets for the lungs. This is pretty much the fourth summer and autumn in a row with choking wildfire smoke in the west. This isn't good.
The wildfire smoke is not great for mental health, either. Let's face it. This year really sucks. There's Covid, unrest in the streets, massive failures of leadership, tragedies and climate change.
As noted, the wildfire smoke is billowing high up into the atmosphere and blotting out the blue sky coast to coast. Social media was full of posts with photos, and comments on how the haze and smoke was turning an incredibly depressing year into something even worse.
Last week that thick haze was overhead in Vermont, and will probably come back for a time later this week, according to forecasts.
The smoke was too high up in the atmosphere over the Green Mountain State to really have any health effects on the ground. But the blah skies were and are a constant reminder that climate change is worsening, and everything seems to be going to hell now.
I was actually relieved when a Canadian cold front rolled through on Friday. Even though the subsequent frost would wreck my gardens, it was so comforting to see blue sky again.
Get used to the smoke, though. And the health hazards. The fires out west continue to burn. Some welcome rain hit the Pacific Northwest over the weekend. California remained dry and on fire. Weather forecasts call for another round of near record heat, wind and dry air over the western United States into early October at least.
With climate change fires will keep getting worse, not only in the West but elsewhere on Earth as well. Get used to those smoky summer and autumn skies.
It's just another way climate change is messing with our lives.
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