By Abigail Popple, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, RMG
With over a dozen fires burning in the Robson Valley Fire Zone, residents may be seeing, smelling, and breathing in wildfire smoke. Smoke inhalation can cause anything from a light cough to chest pains requiring immediate medical intervention, so it’s important to stay protected, says Dr. Raina Fumerton, a Medical Health Officer at Northern Health.
“Wildfire smoke is a pretty complex mixture of fine particulate matter that you’ll often hear referred to as PM2.5. Those really tiny particles, smaller than 2.5 microns, are the main culprits in terms of health impacts,” Fumerton told The Goat.
Aside from particulate matter, wildfire smoke often contains gasses like carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide – which Fumerton says makes for a nasty mixture.
“Primarily, it irritates your respiratory system and mucosa (the inner linings of the lungs, mouth and nose),” Fumerton said of wildfire smoke’s effects. “Your most common symptoms would be eye irritation, runny nose, sore throat, coughs, increased phlegm production, wheezy breathing, and headache.”
However, some people are at higher risk of severe reactions to wildfire smoke, such as chest pain or heart palpitations. Fumerton said this includes people with pre-existing conditions like chronic lung or heart disease, as well as pregnant people, very young children and seniors.
Generally, once smoke dissipates, so too do these symptoms, said Fumerton. But as wildfires get more frequent with each passing year, it’s important to avoid inhalation as much as possible in case there are any long-term health effects.
“Currently, there’s a lot of studies underway around emerging research to find out what the long-lasting health effects from seasonal wildfire smoke might be,” Fumerton said. “We don’t have a ton of evidence, but there’s some early cautions that there could be some long lasting health effects from prolonged exposure. So, avoiding exposure as much as possible is recommended.”
The best way to avoid smoke is to stay indoors, ideally somewhere with clean, filtered air, according to Fumerton. She advises purchasing portable air cleaners – specifically, ones that have HEPA filters – which will remove particles from indoor air, and keeping windows and doors closed when possible.
“If you can’t afford or can’t find portable air cleaners with HEPA filtration, you can do homemade, do-it-yourself air cleaners. They’re remarkably effective,” Fumerton said. “You can find instructions for that by googling BC CDC (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention) DIY air cleaner, and they’ve got step-by-step instructions on how to do that as well as a ton of other great information about wildfire smoke.”
For those who can’t stay indoors all day, Fumerton suggests taking frequent breaks inside, limiting physical exertion, and wearing a high-quality mask to filter out particulate matter. Respirators or N95 masks are ideal, though the blue procedural masks many used during COVID restrictions still offer some protections, unlike fabric coverings such as bandannas, which Fumerton says do not filter out particles.
She advises people to duck into public buildings with filtered air if they’re out and about for long periods of time. The public libraries in both Valemount and McBride have air filtration systems, according to library staff.
“Masks are a good tool in the toolbox for certain situations,” Fumerton said. “But ultimately the advice would be to try to spend most of your time in clean, indoor air space, if possible.”
