But in addition to burning trees and burning organic material, you’re burning paint thinners, you’re burning paint, you’re burning detergents, you’re burning shampoo, you’re burning the upholstery of your sofa, you’re burning your car. There are almost 200 different toxins in air pollution, and it’s the same thing with wildfire smoke. When you’re burning petroleum, you’re basically burning trees that are millions of years old that were just compacted into oil. NADEAU: Oftentimes wildfire smoke is very similar to what’s in air pollution. The wildfires in the U.S., for example, burn mostly forests but also a lot of times burn materials in residential communities. But wildfire smoke often is not wild anymore. The fires in Canada most likely are covering a lot of organic material in forests. Even hundreds of miles away, you can still inhale that. NADEAU: What people in Boston, New York City or New Jersey are breathing in is basically smoke from wildfires in Canada. You increase your mixture to include a lot more toxic chemicals. That’s when you start burning plastics, household items, installations, things like that. Now, increasingly, wildfires are also encroaching on residential property and human-made anthropogenic sources. It's very different depending on whether it’s on the East Coast or the West Coast because different regions have different vegetation. JASPERS: Wildfire smoke is sort of a moving target because it always depends on where the emissions are coming from-where the fire is burning. How does the wildfire smoke differ regionally? Scientific American spoke to Nadeau and Jaspers about the health impacts of wildfire smoke exposure, who is most vulnerable to health risks, and measures you can take to protect yourself. North Carolina is in code orange on the Air Quality Index. “Breathe the air with caution,” says Ilona Jaspers, a toxicologist and professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. People-especially those with preexisting conditions such as lung disease or asthma-are advised to stay indoors if possible. “Everyone is going to be vulnerable at some point, but some people are more vulnerable.” But as climate change makes fires more frequent and intense, “no one is immune to the effects of wildfire smoke,” she says. Nadeau, who is currently working with wildfire firefighters, has seen firsthand what constant wildfire smoke exposure can do to health. Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission. Chan School of Public Health and a member of the U.S. There’s actually no safe distance from wildfire smoke,” says Kari Nadeau, chair of the department of environmental health at the Harvard T. The dense plumes triggered unhealthy air quality alerts in 18 states as of 6 P.M. Smoke from numerous wildfires in Canada has circulated hundreds of miles down the East Coast, as far south as South Carolina. Skies have been stained a sickly brown in the U.S.
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