IT JUST LOOKS BAD
Health officials insist our smoky air is not a threat to most of us
When Provincial Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall wakes up in the morning these days he does so with a sore throat and a cough.
It’s an irritating and disconcerting experience by now familiar to many British Columbians who are living among fine particulate matter that has belched into the sky from the scores of wildfires burning forests around the province.
While the heavy smoke has air-quality experts monitoring for signs of trouble and health officials like Kendall advising people to move their strenuous activities indoors, many organizers are doing their best to blow off the problem and forge ahead with outdoor events.
When asked just how unhealthy exposure to the smoke could be, Kendall said it was at the point where people who are sensitive to pollution will be feeling a headache, shortness of breath or a cough.
Those with asthma or chronic obstructive lung disease may be in distress.
But for most people, there’s no need to stay indoors.
“The exposures that we see here now, they may affect people with really serious, underlying conditions. But they’re unlikely to be longterm dangerous for the vast majority of us,” Kendall said.
That’s good news for those looking forward to events this weekend like the Abbotsford Air Show.
Jadene Mah, a spokeswoman for the air show, said the little bit of haze wasn’t about to put a stop to the performances.
“All of our air-show performers are professionals and they come prepared with various flight profiles (routines),” Mah said. “They will select the best flight profile that fits the weather — even sometimes the sun — on the day of the performance.”
For Tyler Gillis, president of the West Coast Soaring Club, the smoky conditions in advance of this weekend’s Festival of Flight — a “paragliding fly-in” at Grouse Mountain — were a bit of a concern.
“We’re keeping our fingers crossed. We’re hoping, obviously, that the smoke clears out,” Gillis said.
It’s not that the festival could be cancelled, but that its beautiful backdrop could be lost in the haze. Also, it makes it hard for paragliding pilots to use thermals to soar through the air and extend their flights, he said.
On the ground, organizers of this weekend’s Canadian Open Enduro at the Crankworx Whistler Mountain Bike Festival are also hoping the weather will clear by start time. Just in case, they’re building a “Plan B,” said Jennifer Smith, a Crankworx spokeswoman.
The Plan B involves less climbing and more lifts in the bike park, Smith said.
“Otherwise, it’s all systems go,” she said.
Among those responsible for testing the air people will breathe this weekend is Kyle Howe, an air-quality analyst at Metro Vancouver.
Howe was at a weather-monitoring station in Burnaby on Tuesday, where he described some of the equipment that helps him do his job.
When it comes to smoke, analysts are particularly interested in devices that read what they call PM2.5 — fine-particulate matter. In parts of B.C. those readings have been high of late.
On Tuesday, Burnaby’s air was listed as “unhealthy” on the World Air Quality Index and given a score of 110 out of 500, where 500 is the worst it could be. For comparison, Squamish was 161, Kamloops hit 192, Mexico City was around 80 and Beijing was 42.
Kevin Skrepnek, chief fire information officer for the B.C. Wildfire Service, said he expected the smoke to stick around until Thursday, when the wind is forecast to pick up.
“That should help clear up some of the smoke that we have had laying relatively stagnant across most of southern B.C.,” he said.