Pollution From Wildfires on the Rise

By DVORAH NELSON

“Every time I was outside I felt like I was being stabbed in the chest,” Marrisa Swanson said over the phone on recent warm Sunday afternoon.

Marrisa is a student from Reno, Nevada who grew up enjoying fishing, hunting, and camping. Her childhood was spent mostly outdoors, running around without thinking much of the way the air felt. In 2016, she was diagnosed with respiratory problems that made her hyper-vigilant about the quality of air around her. To her, the current air pollution feels like “sticking your face in a bonfire”.

This year’s wildfires, coupled with a global pandemic, looked like something out of a dystopian novel. Fires blazed, skies turned red, and across the nation, heavy smog hung in the air. The fire has not only devastated homes and caused disastrous socioeconomic effects, but has also played a huge role in air pollution, setting new low air quality records in many states. For people like Marissa, the effects of wildfire air pollution are instant and painful. For others, these effects could mean facing new long term health risks.

“Within one hour [of a wildfire start] we see an increase in ambulance calls and increases in hospitalizations,” Dr. Mary Prunicki said over a short phone interview. Prunicki is the director of Air Pollution and Health Research at Stanford Medical Center, as well as a senior researcher at the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research. Her work involves studying the long-term health effects of air pollution. According to her research, every year states that face wildfires have an influx of hospital patients with issues such as asthma, COPD, bronchitis, pneumonia, and even cardiovascular disease, with a recent study showing a link between the air pollutants and the mortality rate of those on hemodialysis.

Wildfires are a huge contributor to air pollution, accounting for 20 to 25% of particulate matter pollution in the atmosphere, according to Prunicki. This year, some wildfire areas are accounting for 50%.

But what exactly is wildfire pollution and why is it so dangerous? Wildfire smoke produces various chemicals that pollute the air depending on the source. The most important to public health is the one called particulate matter, or PM2.5.

According to the World Health Organization particulate matter is a mixture of solids and liquid that are largely made from gasses and the combustion process, in other words from fire. The specific liquids and solids depend on where the fire originated. These sources can mutate human genes and cause health problems.

The 2.5 refers to the size of the matter – which ranges from 1 to 2.5 micrometers or smaller. That’s about a fortieth of a grain of sand or about a thirtieth of the width of a strand of hair. It’s so small that even clear days can be deceptive, with PM2.5 still in the air. This size also makes them easy to inhale, allowing the particles to enter the lungs and if small enough, even the bloodstream.

Marrisa is far from alone in facing health risks from wildfire pollution. The United States is facing over 40 large un-contained fires, burning nearly 4.2 million acres throughout the country. Wildlife resources are reaching their highest level and firefighters from outside the states have come to help stop the blazes. While fires are a common yearly occurrence, climate change has been worsening the size and spread of fires. The West Coast has seen some of its worst fires on record this year and scientists say it’s only going to get worse. For the 16 million Americans with COPD and 25 million with asthma, these fires could be disastrous for their health.

Those with respiratory illnesses are not the only ones at risk. According to a review by the Director for the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment Wayne Cascio, “Populations at greatest risk include people with chronic lung disease, older individuals, children, pregnant women, and fetuses. Individuals with pre-existing heart disease are also likely to be at increased risk.”

Other studies have found that low-income areas are also at a greater risk of air pollution.

For Swanson the risk is not just a short-term effect. Inhaling smoke can do permanent damage to her lungs. If she breathes in polluted air from wildfires, her immune system will do its job -and then keep going, resulting in damage to her lungs caused by an over-aggressive immune response.

Even in states that don’t see the wildfires, the effects of air pollution are still being felt. While the pollutants that travel usually stay high up, meteorological changes can bring them down to the air-breathing level. For those with respiratory illnesses, this can mean not being able to leave your home, according to Prunicki.

Michelle Dinisti, a New York native who moved to Seattle for the clean air and beautiful evergreens was forced to stay indoors for close to over a week as the worst of the fires hit Oregon and California.

“The sky was like nothing I’d ever seen before I was too scared to leave my house,” she said, “I would check the air quality every day y’know. it was just awful, it got to the point where I wouldn’t even shower it was so depressing.”

Diniski  has been a long time smoker who started to face respiratory issues in March. When Covid appeared she was paranoid, washing her hands constantly and only leaving her house to spend time in nature. Now she is forced to stay indoors with the windows closed and an air purifier running. When she finally did leave her house she wore three masks.

“We know that when you’re exposed to wildfire smoke your immune system won’t function as well,” Dr. Prunciki said, “if you are exposed to Covid it can raise the risk of getting it or even the risk of mortality.”

For people like  and Dinisti and Swanson, this can mean being stuck with both the dangers of wildfire pollutants and with the dangers of Covid. In 2018 when the fires were really bad, Swanson escaped to Georgia for the clean air. Now, due to the pandemic, she cannot take the risk of flying.

This can also spell disaster for low-income communities that are now at a higher risk for both Covid and wildfire air pollution. “Their housing is not sealed as well, they’re less likely to have air conditioning, so they’re less likely to be protected from smoke,” Prunicki said. “Some people have the ability to leave, a lot of low-income people don’t have that option.”

And these problems are not short term. Prunicki’s research includes studying the long-term health effects of wildfire air pollution. Her research has shown a strong correlation between the PM2.5 particles and a change in cells, specifically in the immune cells of children. This change could potentially be long term and even passed down to future generations.

With global warming predicting increases in California wildfire burns by up to 77% by the end of the century, these health concerns are not limited to California residents. “This fire season has been the worst ever,” Prunicki said, “Unless something changes, there’s no reason to think it’s not going to get worse.”