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Wildfires spread smoke and other pollutants |
Climate extremes have not only increased the size, intensity, frequency, and duration of wildfires, they also have spread and intensified the health harms of the smoke and other air pollutants from these huge blazes, experts say. Respiratory specialists already had warned that patients with heart and lung conditions, asthma, allergies, and other breathing impairments must take precautions against wildfire smoke and its related pollutants. They should try staying indoors, with doors and windows shut and air conditioning or air cleaning systems running. They should limit outdoor exposure and avoid strenuous activities. If their symptoms — stinging eyes, scratchy throat, runny nose, a hacking cough, headache, fatigue, rapid heartbeat, and shortness of breath — become severe and don’t respond to common measures such as resting, showering, and taking over-the-counter or prescribed medications, they should seek medical help. Those with chronic conditions and older patients are at higher risk from wildfire smoke and its particulate matter, increasing research shows. A study, still under review and involving data on more than 1.2 million people 60 or older in Southern California from 2009 to 2019, “links the long-term exposure of … wildfire smoke to brain health, suggesting that it greatly increases risk of dementia compared with other sources of air pollution,” CNN reported, adding, “The research also indicates that associations between wildfire smoke and dementia diagnoses are most pronounced among people from racially and ethnically [minority] groups and in high-poverty areas.” A new study published by researchers at Yale and other institutions reported this: “[D]ata from 2007 to 2020 showed positive associations between long-term exposure to wildland smoke [particulates] and nonaccidental, cardiovascular, ischemic heart disease, digestive, endocrine, diabetes, mental, and chronic kidney disease mortality rates.” The New York Times earlier this year reported that wildfires and their health threats are expected to soar due to climate extremes: “More than 125 million Americans will be exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution by the middle of the century, largely because of increased smoke from wildfires, according to estimates released [in February.] Yet there are few good ways to protect communities, experts said. The United States has gotten better at coping with other climate perils, like floods, hurricanes and even wildfires themselves. Smoke is different: It’s more challenging to anticipate, to get people to take seriously and to keep out of people’s homes.” The newspaper noted that Americans have learned through harsh experience that protections they might have relied on earlier against wildfires and their pollution — considerations like distance, geography, and certain times of year thought to be free of the threat (e.g., winter) — no longer are so certain, the New York Times reported: “[S]moke can travel great distances with little warning. Unlike flooding, smoke’s movement through a community can’t easily be guessed by mapping the local topography, and it can’t be blocked or diverted. That makes wildfire smoke more akin to extreme heat. But unlike heat waves, people can’t respond by moving their activities to dawn or evening hours. And people may not know when they’re being exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution.” |
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