By Dr. Charles Gardner
Over the past month, Simcoe Muskoka has experienced a higher than usual number of days with poor air quality caused by smoke from wildfires burning in Ontario and Quebec. People are asking more questions about how wildfire smoke and other pollution sources affect outdoor air quality and our health.
Air quality in Ontario had improved after coal-fired electricity plants were decommissioned, but human activity continues to produce greenhouse gases and pollution that affect the air we breathe. Air pollution from a variety of sources, including vehicle emissions, energy production and usage, and wildfires contribute to climate change.
Climate change is the shifting of long-term weather patterns away from what was normal, and its affects are harming human health including in Simcoe Muskoka. These changes are leading to more frequent and severe extreme weather events, including periods of extreme heat, dry weather or drought and shifts in precipitation that increase the risk of wildfires and poor air quality.
Poor air quality affects us all but each person reacts differently. Some people are at greater risk of experiencing negative health effects, including infants and children, pregnant people and their unborn children, people who work or do strenuous activities outdoors, older adults, and people who have existing illnesses or chronic health conditions (e.g., cancer, diabetes, and heart and lung diseases).
The harmful effects of air pollution depend on several factors: the length of time, the amount, and the type of pollution you are exposed to. Short-term exposure can cause headaches, irritate the eyes, lungs, nose and throat, and aggravate existing conditions like asthma. Air pollution can impact the heart, lung, brain and other organs, and can lead to illness, hospitalization and premature death with long-term exposure increasing the risk of developing heart or lung disease and cancer.
Wildfire smoke can be particularly dangerous to health, even at low levels, as it is made up of a complex mixture of particulate matter and gases that can quickly change and travel hundreds of kilometres. Wildfire smoke causes irritation and inflammation and makes it more difficult for lungs to get oxygen into the blood. Smokey conditions can increase the risk of some infections like pneumonia, ear infections and COVID-19. Mild irritation and discomfort are common and usually disappear when the smoke clears.
In the short term, you can protect yourself from wildfire smoke, poor air quality and other overlapping risks like extreme heat, by being prepared and knowing what to do when these conditions occur. Ontario’s Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) is a tool designed to help you understand how changes in the air quality in your area affects your health. When air quality is poor, you can protect yourself by staying indoors and wearing a well-fitted respirator type mask (e.g., NIOSH, N95 or equivalent) if you must be outdoors. If indoor temperatures are comfortable, closing windows and doors will help to keep indoor air clean. If you have an HVAC system in your home, using the highest rated MERV filter for your system (ideally rated 13 or higher) and setting the fan to recirculate air constantly will also help. Information about more ways to protect yourself is available on the health unit’s website.
Improving air quality will take time but individuals, organizations and governments can act and make a difference. Steps such as avoiding unnecessary travel in personal vehicles and not using gas-powered lawn equipment when air quality is poor, can help to “spare the air” and reduce overall air pollution. On a larger scale, people can ask their local, provincial and federal government representatives to stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry, to invest in greener energy solutions and to create policies that build and support sustainable communities. Together these actions will benefit individual health and well-being, as well as that of our community, economy and environment.
Dr. Charles Gardner is the Medical Officer of Health for the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit. To learn more about air quality, climate change and other public health topics, visit smdhu.org.
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Brian Tapley says
Pollution is a wonderful thing to talk about.
Practically speaking though, I don’t get a lot of choice.
I run a business, a tourism business and this entails that I work outside a lot. I have to do this as the 80 to 90 people staying at my place need the outside of the place kept in a manner that is clean, and safe for their recreation. No choice for me here so i go out and work, no matter the smoke level, sunlight beating down, rain or in winter snow. I’m one of those folks who cleans up all this stuff so the recreational tourist can actually “recreate” rather than “bush bash”.
I would appreciate it if folks did as Dr. Gardiner suggests, and minimize their footprint of pollution as I am out in it daily., with no option to go and hide indoors.
I also wonder, just out of curiosity, when we are told not to use lawn and garden maintenance machinery to “reduce it’s impact” on the environment, how much fuel does lawn and garden equipment actually use compared to the herd of SUV’s roaming around Wallymart each and every day??
The reason I wonder is I look after a LOT of grounds and I don’t use all that much fuel. I just finished mowing about two acres of grass and used 4 liters of gas to do this job. The mower is a 4 stroke, emissions compliant machine complete with electronic ignition so it can’t be a heck of a lot different than a car or truck and I’ll bet you don’t go far in your three ton truck on 4 liters of gas. By the way, the mower runs at a constant speed which is the most efficient way to run a reciprocating gas burning motor too.
Pollution being created by fuel burning, assuming you burn the fuel efficiently, should be proportional to the quantity of fuel burned.
It would be interesting to see the number of liters burned in cars and pick up trucks compared to lawn and garden equipment published.
Allen Markle says
We get a lot of different stories, views and comments here on Doppler, and it’s sometimes interesting the way they all fit together, whether that was the intention or not. Dr. Gardiner alerts us (like we may not have yet noticed), that there is wildfire smoke in the air. It is harmful, more dangerous for some than others. The young, the aged, those with compromised health situations. Beware!
But we will have to work and play under these conditions, because now, this is the way it is. At present and likely into the future. Paul Tapley points out that some have no choice but to work, if they hope to maintain their businesses and lifestyle.
We have an MP who banishes a group from his office, because of a comment. Likely it is easier to refuse to meet with them, than to explain why the party he represents has no real plan to deal with the situation. Other than opposing anything the opposition may propose. But you can’t deny the smoke.
Hugh Holland comments on how the 174 Earls Rd. development might be created more eco-friendly, if only there were a tribunal to dictate that, that is the way it will be done from now on. I suppose both Hugh and I realise, there is a snowballs chance in one of those forest fires, of that happening. Now anyway. And can you imagine the millionaire tears, should someone say these pending projects were to be eco-friendly.
Can’t you just hear it? “But why should I have to do this now. when he didn’t have to do it then? It’ not fair!” Wah, wah, wah.
But it all pales, when compared to a father trying to get his asthmatic son to hospital. While the fires burned and smoke hung around them. The boy said something like ‘It’s not been like this before.” His struggling to breathe. Can’t imagine the terror that father felt on that trip. Worse still for that family when they lost their son.
I think the lads words should speak to us all.
It’s not been like this before!