How wildfire smoke affects your health and how to protect yourself

Serially As wildfires continue in the Los Angeles area, blanketing neighborhoods in smoke and forcing thousands to flee their homes, air quality remains unhealthy in many parts of the county.

Forest fire smoke a a mixture of water vapor, gases and microscopic particles known as particles. The smallest of these particles, known as PM2.5 because they are less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, pose the greatest threat to human health. They can settle deep in the lungs and sometimes enter the bloodstream. Earlier this week, PM2.5 around Los Angeles rose to “hazardous” levels, the highest alert in the United States. US Air Quality Index.

“Wildfire smoke is a risk to everyone, especially when the particulate matter emitted is large over a long period of time, such as what is happening in California right now,” said Zachary Rubin, a Chicago-area pediatrician and spokesman for the American College of Public Health. Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

When inhaled, fine particles can cause inflammation in the body. Symptoms can range from mild, such as burning or itchy eyes, runny nose, scratchy throat, and headache, to severe respiratory problems, including difficulty breathing, wheezing, coughing, fatigue, and chest pain. It may take several hours to days after exposure for symptoms to appear. In the most severe cases, it increases the risk of premature death.

Children, the elderly, pregnant women, and those with heart or lung disease or a weakened immune system are at greater risk of developing serious side effects. But Rubin says it’s possible for anyone to have respiratory effects from wildfire smoke, regardless of health status.

“Any level of air pollution, including wildfires, can be dangerous to your health,” says Laura Corlin, an environmental epidemiologist at Tufts University School of Medicine. How dangerous it is depends on many factors, including your current health status, proximity to fire, and duration of exposure. “A good rule of thumb is that more exposure is worse,” he said.

The composition of a forest fire can also affect human health. As the California wildfires engulf homes and businesses, smoke from the region likely carries chemicals released from synthetic building materials that are more toxic than those released from burning vegetation.

People in Los Angeles County and elsewhere in the US can check airnow.gov learn more about the current air quality in their area. Because air quality can change rapidly throughout the day, if there is a fire in your area, you should monitor the indicators regularly and try to limit your outdoor exposure when the quality is poor. The See Duty app is a good resource to check if there are fires burning near where you are.

How to protect yourself and others

“The lungs clean the air we breathe and send it to the heart, and the heart pumps it to the rest of the body,” says Shazia Jamil, MD, a pulmonologist and professor of medicine at Scripps Clinic and the University of California, Diego. It helped Jamil’s development guide For the American Thoracic Society on how to stay healthy during wildfires.

He says that if someone has shortness of breath, wheezing or a high respiratory rate from breathing in smoke, it causes the heart to beat faster and can exacerbate pre-existing heart problems. Even healthy people can experience chest pain and shortness of breath due to smoke inhalation.