Smoke raises health warning
Air quality index at highest level, little relief expected this week
For the second time in a week, Calgary’s air-quality health index has been deemed a very high risk, as wildfire smoke once again blankets the city.
The overwhelming smoke on Wednesday was being blown in from the wildfires in B.C. and, with the hot and dry forecast, it’s here to stay until the end of the week.
“Rain often washes particulate matter from the air, so it reduces the smoke quite a bit,” said John Paul Cragg, Environment Canada warning preparedness meteorologist.
“So if we get a good rainfall, that could clear out the air. But without that rain, the smoke is allowed to linger.”
Environment Canada is ranking the air-quality health index at 10+, the highest rating on the warning scale, which comes with heightened health concerns.
According to Cragg, the province might get a break on Sunday, when northerly winds could clear some of the smoke.
“Air quality doesn’t look like it will be consistently poor in one location. As the wind blows the smoke from B.C., little changes in the direction of the wind mean that the heavier smoke will move into different locations in Alberta.”
Alberta Health Services warns that individuals with respiratory or cardiovascular conditions may notice a worsening of symptoms and are advised to minimize their time outdoors, and remain indoors with windows, doors and air circulation fans and vents closed.
“We recommend when the air does get as bad as it is now, that they look at reducing their activity level and getting out of the poor air as much as possible and getting into clean air environments,” said Dr. Jason Cabaj.
While minor smoke conditions do not typically cause health concerns in healthy individuals, if conditions become more severe, even healthy individuals may experience temporary irritation of eyes and throat, and possibly shortness of breath.
Prolonged exposure to poor air quality could see pregnant women have premature births.
“Air pollution can get in and cause a number of inflammatory effects, and that’s due to the small particulate matter and it can have an effect on a range of body systems, and pregnant women can be vulnerable in that way to those types of stresses,” said Cabaj.
Wednesday morning, B.C. declared a provincial state of emergency to support the provincewide response to the wildfire situation.
At 6 a.m. Wednesday, Calgary clocked its 189th smoky hour this year, which put 2018 in third place for its most ever in a single year.
The smoke isn’t only making it harder to breathe, it’s making the sky an eerie orange colour.
“The orange colour is often the colour you see from the smoke from fires, because the particulate matter in the smoke filters out a lot of the blue light from the sun and you see a red tinge,” said Cragg.
“It’s like a sunset but it’s overtop of you. When the sun is setting there is more atmosphere to go through to get light to your eyes, so some of the blue light is filtered out but the red, longer wavelengths make it to your eyes.”