When wildfire smoke moves into the Northwoods from Canada or the West Coast, tiny particles in the air can get into people’s eyes, lungs, and blood.
This can exacerbate issues for people with health conditions like asthma, COPD, or certain heart conditions.
But you don’t have to have an underlying condition to be impacted.
“There's other complications that aren't as immediately evident from these small particles, things like folks coming in with migraines, people feeling/thinking they maybe have COVID or the flu because they're just feeling run down and achy, or more serious things like heart attacks and strokes, those all can be traced, potentially, back to these wildfires,” said Dr. Dylan Wyatt, an emergency medicine physician at Aspirus Hospital in Duluth.
Once the particles are in your bloodstream, there’s not a whole lot that can be done other than letting your kidney’s do their job to filter them out. Wyatt says drinking water can help this process.
The best thing you can do is avoid breathing in the particles.
Wyatt says people need to learn what air quality level is comfortable for their health. It’s not going to be the same for everyone.
There are recommended levels that are issues with air quality alerts that can help people make decisions.
“Once you understand that number it means either stay indoors, making sure that either air conditioning is running, to filter out the air itself, or to use air purifiers, whether it's a manufactured one, or whether it's taking a 20x20x1 air filter and attaching it to a box fan to make a simple filter,” said Wyatt. “If you do have to go out and be out in the smoke, wearing a N95 or a KN95 mask that fits well, with trimmed facial hair to make sure that there's not passage of particles around there, can limit the exposure to those small particles by about 95%, it reduces that by about 95%.”
As wildfires burn more frequently and intensely, Wyatt says it’s going to become more important that people have a reliable way to get air quality alerts.
“If we look at the data, frequency of wildfires, there has been a significant uptick recently, and there's not any evidence that would suggest that is going to slow down or stop,” said Wyatt. “I don't think we're all as in tune as we should be [to air quality alerts], and that's evidenced by the number of folks we see with some degree of complications from that in the ED.”
You can sign up to get air quality alerts and advisories through EnviroFlash. They’re also typically included in forecasts.
If you’re having issues breathing, articulating speech, or experiencing chest pains, you should head to an emergency department.
Wyatt says people with concerns about other conditions like scratchy throat, tiredness, or flu-like symptoms should consider making an appointment with their provider.
Support for local health coverage on WXPR is brought to you in part by a grant from the Rhinelander Health Foundation.
