Smoky air blankets Bay Area.
With the Camp Fire still raging in Butte County, air in the Bay Area continues to be unhealthy for residents to breathe.
“We’re expecting unhealthy air quality through Friday at the very least,” Kristine Roselius, a spokeswoman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, told this news organization recently. “The air-quality index is in the unhealthy range, which is quite unusual in the Bay Area.”
The air is so unhealthy that school districts from Sonoma to Petaluma and Santa Rosa canceled classes Tuesday. Health experts urged people, particularly children and the elderly or anyone with respiratory issues, to stay indoors.
And with the fire just 30 percent contained and not expected to be fully under control until the end of the month, the air quality is set to be poor for an extended period of time.
According to Purple Air, which tracks air pollution throughout the world, parts of San Francisco had an air quality reading Tuesday of 185. Anything between 0 and 50 is considered good, with anything north of 100 beginning to be unhealthy for sensitive groups.
Just south of Rohnert Park, Purple Air’s sensor was registering 205 Tuesday morning, meaning the air was very unhealthy and capable of inflicting negative health effects, such as shortness of breath or dry eyes, on everyone.
In the East Bay, Purple Air readers registered borderline very unhealthy air in parts of Emeryville and Oakland. Air quality in the South Bay, including in San Jose and Santa Clara was better — hovering between 150 and 170 in many places — but still unhealthy.
According to Dr. Sanjay Kurani, a Santa Clara Valley Medical Center physician, the hospital admitted more people for asthma-related problems directly related to the smoky conditions over the weekend than it usually does, as did outpatient clinics. The hospital brought in more staffers to handle the uptick.
And the smoky air is coinciding with the earliest
part of the flu season, which means especially increased risk for people with preexisting health issues.
“With smoky conditions and the flu, that's kind of a perfect storm that could be coming up for us that could be a real, real concern for us from a respiratory standpoint,” Kurani said.
For the first time ever, Kurani, who has been at the hospital 20 years, said he and other physicians are keeping some patients they would otherwise let go because of the bad air quality.
“I've never not discharged a patient because I'm afraid the air outside is of poorer quality than the air in the hospital,” he said.
Near the fire zone, a sensor near Oroville was reading 501, considered hazardous. By contrast, on Tuesday, Beijing's air quality number was about half that, hovering near 250, and still considered very unhealthy. In Delhi, it was registering at 319.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, people should reduce their exposure to pollution by staying indoors in areas with filtered air, keeping their activity levels low to avoid breathing faster or more deeply, and wearing an N-95 respirator outdoors.
Staff Writer Robert Salonga contributed reporting.