In series As massive fires continue to ravage the Los Angeles area, blanketing neighborhoods in smoke and forcing thousands to evacuate their homes, air quality remains unhealthy in many parts of the county.
Wildfire smoke is a mixture of water vapor, gases, and microscopic particles called particulate matter. The smallest of these particles, called PM2.5 because their diameter is less than 2.5 micrometers, are those that pose the most danger to human health. They can lodge deep in the lungs and sometimes enter the bloodstream. Earlier this week, PM2.5 around Los Angeles reached “dangerous” levels, the highest warning in the world. United States Air Quality Index.
“Wildfire smoke is dangerous for everyone, especially when the particles released are in large quantities for long periods of time, like what is happening now in California,” says Zachary Rubin, a Chicago-area pediatrician and spokesperson for the American College. allergy, asthma and immunology.
When fine particles are inhaled, they can trigger inflammation in the body. Symptoms can range from mild, such as burning or itching eyes, runny nose, sore throat, and headache, to severe breathing problems, including difficulty breathing, wheezing, coughing, fatigue and chest pain. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days for symptoms to appear after exposure. In the most severe cases, this increases the risk of premature death.
Children, the elderly, pregnant people, and people with heart or lung disease or a weakened immune system are at higher risk of developing serious side effects. But Rubin says it’s possible for anyone, regardless of health, to have respiratory effects from exposure to wildfire smoke.
“Any level of air pollution, including that caused by wildfires, can be hazardous to health,” says Laura Corlin, an environmental epidemiologist at Tufts University School of Medicine. How dangerous you are depends on many factors, including your current health, your proximity to the fire, and the duration of exposure. “A good rule of thumb is that more exposure is worse,” she says.
The composition of a wildfire can also impact human health. As California fires ravage homes and businesses, smoke in the region likely carries chemicals released by synthetic building materials that are more toxic than those emitted by burning vegetation.
Residents of Los Angeles County and elsewhere in the United States can check airnow.gov to learn more about the current air quality in their area. Because air quality can change quickly throughout the day, you should monitor readings regularly if there is a fire in your area and try to limit your exposure to outside air when the quality is poor. THE Monitoring service The app is a good resource for checking if there are fires near you.
How to protect yourself and others
“The lungs purify the air we breathe and send it to the heart, and the heart pumps it out to the rest of the body,” says Shazia Jamil, a pulmonologist and professor of medicine at the Scripps Clinic and the University of California at San. Diego. Jamil helped develop a guide for the American Thoracic Society on how to stay healthy during wildfires.
She says if someone is short of breath, wheezing or has a high respiratory rate due to smoke inhalation, it increases the heart rate and can exacerbate pre-existing heart problems. Even healthy people can experience chest pain and shortness of breath from smoke inhalation.
