Chronic exposure to wildfire smoke could have serious effects on our health—from our lungs to our kidneys, liver, brain, and heart. Here are steps you can take to protect yourself
about what’s in the atmosphere—including the particles from wildfires.
“We don’t have a clear understanding of what the health effects are on an unborn fetus, but systemic inflammation in a woman who is pregnant may affect her unborn baby,” adds Henderson.about 30 times smaller than a human hair Inflammation can be a good thing for fighting off invaders. But Christenson says it’s especially dangerous for anyone with underlying conditions such as asthma or COPD, both characterized by inflammation. Additional inflammation can exacerbate those diseases. “It’s a really delicate balance before you can go overboard,” she says.
Karol Watson, professor of cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, links that to the proximity of the heart and coronary arteries to the lungs. Watson was part of a team that conducted a 2016 studythat looked at the effects of a variety of pollutants in six U.S. cities and discovered a link between high levels of air pollution and coronary disease.
Tarik Benmarhia, an environmental health scientist from the University of California, San Diego, notes that the same populations of people who were more vulnerable to diseases like COVID-19—those with low incomes, pre existing conditions, and poor access to health care—may also be vulnerable to the impacts of wildfires.
“I don’t think we’ve had resolution on the exposure side to see what all those chemicals are and what happens when they combust at very high temperatures,” says Hertz-Picciotto, “nor do we understand how those health impacts might differ.”HVAC systems can help purify air inside a home, as can air purifiers for a single room.
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