[Train crew surrounded by flames near Armstrong, Ontario]
Courtney Howard (interview): “Wildfire smoke is the toxic products of combustion of whatever burned. So really, if there were trees, it’s products of tree combustion. If there were houses, it was products of that. And so really, it is a big giant toxic soup of particles and gasses.”
[Smoke in Philadelphia]
Courtney Howard (interview): “What we measure most often in studies is PM2.5, so particulate matter less than 2.5 microns, and the reason we keep track of that is that those particles are so small that they go all the way down into people’s alveoli, and the teensy-tiny ones can cross over into the blood stream and lead to inflammatory cascades in people’s blood. And so that’s why the range of health impacts goes all the way from surface level things, so itchy eyes, headaches, coughing to usually a day or two later in the emergency department we start to see asthma exacerbations, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbations and even heart attacks and cardiac arrest.”
[Person in mask waiting to cross the street]
[People crossing the street near CTA trains, some wearing masks]
[Face mask box]
[People walking around the neighborhood in masks in wildfire smoke]
Luke Montrose (interview): “Just like the weather forecast is available on your phone, you can look at the outdoor smoke forecast. You can look at your current air quality through websites like airnow.gov. And I would also recommend if you have the ability, you know, jump online and look at these low-cost air quality monitors. They’re very accessible now. Some under a hundred dollars, and knowledge is power. Once you have that data and you understand, ‘Is my indoor air quality actually better than the outdoor?’ If it’s not, you can start to look for ways to make changes like air purification systems.”
[Wildfire smoke in the distance]
Luke Montrose (interview): “Then you can also do things like, you know, have a plan to have masks, N-95 masks in your home or to have a plan to make sure that all the windows and doors are actually shut during a wildfire smoke event. That all starts with knowledge and data. And that is not data that is sort of inaccessible to you. It is very accessible, but you just have to know where to find it and then know what to do with that data once you have it.”
[Wildfire smoke in the distance]
[Wildfire smoke]
Mary Johnson (interview): “You know if you go out in the smoke when you come back change your clothes, if you need to you know take a shower get that off of you so that you’re not getting some type of, you know, additional exposure. I think all of those things will help but the number one thing would be if you can’t avoid it you should avoid it.”
[People walking in masks in wildfire smoke]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.