They have killed dozens of Americans and destroyed hundreds of homes, but the greatest threat from the wildfires ravaging the west coast of the United States may be invisible. Tiny ash particles and chemicals generated by airborne fires can travel hundreds or even thousands of thousands, and can cause not only short-term symptoms, such as asthma flare-ups or watery eyes, but also serious long-term cardiovascular damage. term they cause. increase the risk of death for potentially millions of people.
The guidelines for staying healthy while big fires burn have long been simple: Stay indoors, and when possible, use air filters to capture those dangerous microparticles.
“Once the smoke clears, it smells good outside, but you walk into the building and it smells like smoke. That’s when they realize they need new filters, ”says Gallagher. But with waiting lists for MERV-13 filters of up to two months, Gallagher hopes that many buildings in smoke-affected areas will be forced to temporarily turn to MERV-8 filters, which cannot remove the coronavirus from the air. That could increase the risk of infection in shared spaces, such as offices, restaurants, and movie theaters.
The coronavirus is forcing a second difficult option as fires rage: let in outside air to reduce the risk of infection or seal buildings to prevent smoke particles from entering.
Although the double bind of coronavirus and smoke is challenging, his biggest concern is the widespread disregard: “Most [commercial] building managers do nothing” to adapt to the dangerous outside air quality, he says, and with You often find that the vents that control the flow of outside air for large buildings have been completely disrupted.
In trying to protect private homes from wildfire smoke, a separate set of challenges arises. According to Sarah Coefield, Missoula Air Quality Specialist, Mont. County government, many homes in the West and Pacific Northwest do not have central HVAC systems capable of filtering smoke particles. That leaves them dependent on portable air filtration devices, which are often effective but can also be hard to find right now due to demand driven by the coronavirus.
Even when available, portable air filters can be expensive, easily costing up to several hundred dollars for a device large enough to clean the air in a single room. That highlights a bigger problem: As seen with the coronavirus, wealthy people can better protect themselves from the health impacts of wildfires. In addition to the cost of filters, lower-end homes or apartments may have more leaks around windows and doors that let in pollutants. And, again, as with COVID-19, not all workers can protect themselves equally; agricultural workers, for example, cannot work from home to get away from smoke.
That’s one reason Javins, despite his professional experience, is uncomfortable concentrating on better air filtration to combat the health risks of pollutants from wildfires. “We’re talking about how to deal with the symptoms,” he says, “and we’re not really talking about how to deal with the problem” – the accelerating speed and intensity of wildfires. Experts blame the rise in wildfires on a combination of poor forest management and man-made climate change.
