FIRE SMOKE DOESN’T ONLY HURT HUMANS
Cattle, wildlife and plants can all be harmed by breathing in heavy smoke
Weeks of exposure to smokefilled skies as a result of Northern California’s wildfires hasn’t only been bad for humans — area specific agricultural staples like cattle and wine grapes are also at risk, studies show.
California has experienced record-breaking fires since August when lightning storms first started igniting hundreds of fires throughout the state.
This is the state’s worst wildfire season on record, with more than 4.1 million acres burned, which is more than double the record that was set in 2018.
But even after the flames are extinguished, experts say respiratory damage can linger for months or even years.
According to the Associated Press, this prolonged exposure to smoke has caused emergency room visits to spike and could potentially cause thousands of deaths among the elderly and infirm.
Smoke at concentrations that topped the government’s charts for health risks and lasted at least a day affected more than 8 million people across five states in recent weeks.
Fires can produce 10 times more particles than are produced by all other pollution sources including vehicle emissions and industrial facilities on any given day, according to Shawn Urbanski, a U.S. Forest Service smoke scientist.
The problem is that even if residents follow all precautions to avoid polluted and smokey air, the smoke may still create short and long-term health risks for everyone exposed, health experts say.
Based on prior studies of pollution-related deaths and the number of people exposed to recent fires, researchers at Stanford University estimate that as many as 3,000 people over 65 in California alone died prematurely after being exposed to smoke during a six-week period beginning Aug. 1.
The lingering effects of smoke are also a very real possibility for vulnerable beef cattle.
The most common trouble among beef cattle too close to a fire is respiratory damage caused by smoke entering the lungs.
Although respiratory ailments are the most common problem for cattle exposed to fire or smoke, there are others, including exposure to heat or fire causing damage that leaves cows unable to nurse their young.
Calves unable to nurse will have a much slower growth rate and, depending on age and stress, could have additional health issues. Extreme heat from a fire can also cause damage to the hooves that only becomes apparent weeks after the event.
The lungs will heal as much as ever within six weeks, but because even
relatively mild respiratory damage can linger for a long time, it’s important to identify — even years after the events — which animals were exposed to smoke or fire.
The fires that have been burning in Northern California for two months nearly uninterrupted could also have disastrous consequences on wine grapes, imperiling an industry whose retail value of wine sales in the US in 2018 rested at over $68 billion, according to Statista.
California alone accounted for 85% of wine — 684.9 million gallons — made in the US in 2018, according to the National Association of American Wineries.For grapes that may have been affected, quantifying
smoke taint is no easy task. According to Wine Spectator Magazine, when wood burns, aroma compounds called volatile phenols are released in the air and can permeate grape skins, bonding with the sugars inside to form molecules called glycosides.
The problem is that the process may render the phenols “no longer volatile,” which means that the smokiness may not be detected until fermentation, or worse, after the wine has been bottled.
According to a UC Davis article, grapes are most susceptible to smoke taint from the time the grapes start to ripen — known as veraison — to harvest.
As the potential for wildfires exacerbates worldwide,
wineries are experimenting with new technology, like compound testing and filtration systems.
This may be especially important for Yolo County, where wine grapes are a hot crop, ranking No. 2 for top commodities and providing over $108 million in sales, according to the 2019 Crop Report.
“It seems like we’re dealing with (smoke taint) every single year now,” Dan Cederquist, head winemaker at the Matchbook Wine Company in Zamora, said. “And we have got to get better at detecting it. Find the industry standards for how it’s quantified.”