In 45 years of combating forest fires, Wayne Patterson, the public information officer for the Grizzly Creek Fire burning near Glenwood Springs, has earned a keen sense of what smoke does to his body.
One immediate effect is a sore throat and some sniffles. Over the years, Patterson said he has learned to tell when the smoke causes his symptoms, rather than a cold or the flu.
But he also suspects inhaling smoke one day can lead to illness the next.
“Clearly, the smoke makes you more susceptible to those kinds of things, colds and bronchitis and all that,” he said.
In recent years, scientists have started to take a more careful look at the potential link that Patterson has long suspected. It’s no mystery people exposed to wildfire smoke make more visits to the emergency room and take more puffs from their inhalers. What’s new is a suggestion of long-term consequences.
Months after fires stop blanketing Colorado and the U.S. West in smoke this year, the people exposed could still have a higher-than-normal susceptibility to respiratory disease like the flu and — maybe — COVID-19.
That conclusion comes from a study published last month in the journal Environment International. For the research, Erin Landguth, an associate professor at the University of Montana, compared air quality data from Montana communities with records for thousands of recorded flu cases between 2009 and 2018. The research found communities tended to have three to five times more flu cases than normal following prolonged smoke exposure.
“In other words, our study showed cases of flu go up after bad fire seasons,” Landgruth said.
The study focused on tiny hazardous air particles known as PM2.5. While larger airborne particles tend to settle on the ground, the smallest pieces of smoke can penetrate deep into the lungs and the bloodstream. That’s partially why it’s monitored by public health authorities.
As fires have ravaged Colorado over the past few weeks, levels of PM2.5 along the Front Range have hovered around levels seen as “moderate” or “dangerous for sensitive groups,” according to the EPA’s AirNow website.
On Sunday, Fort Collins briefly saw PM2.5 levels nearly into ranges deemed “very unhealthy” for everyone. Large parts of California have already crossed that threshold due to unprecedented fires in that state.
Prior to her research, Landgruth said most studies about PM2.5 and flu studied urban areas in countries like China, since the tiny hazardous air particles can also come from coal plants and diesel engines. In those cases, scientists found flu outbreaks tended to occur days or weeks after prolonged exposure to bad air. Her study turned up something else entirely.
While Montana communities did not see an effect in the immediate aftermath of a smoke event, flu cases did jump as much as one to three months afterward.
“We were shocked,” she said. “We were not expected to see this long of a delayed effect in the data.”
"What" - Google News
August 25, 2020 at 06:48AM
https://ift.tt/3ldppFf
What Happens When Wildfire Smoke Meets Coronavirus? Here's What Scientists Know - Colorado Public Radio
"What" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3aVokM1
https://ift.tt/2Wij67R
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "What Happens When Wildfire Smoke Meets Coronavirus? Here's What Scientists Know - Colorado Public Radio"
Post a Comment