“We can clearly see the negative effects of wildfire smoke on the lungs, but there was some hope that it wouldn’t be as severe as the impact of urban air pollution.”
You’ve been studying wildfires for a long time. How has the uptick in frequency changed the scope of your work in the last few years? So what you’re saying is that our bodies have evolved to respond to our environment—just not this level of environmental ruin. The difference between the types of smoke exists at the particle level. If we burn coal, it has a certain chemical signature. With wildfire smoke, the particles contain much more organic material, which is due to all the vegetation that’s being burned. The chemical makeup then reacts with the atmosphere, so the smoke composition changes the further it is from the fire source. When fires are smouldering, we actually tend to see more particles than if it’s burning very, very hot.
Aside from the physical effects, I’m sure all the scary visuals we’re seeing outside and on the news—the hazy skies, blurred sun—and general disaster-movie feel of things can’t be having a positive effect on Canadians’ mental and emotional wellbeing, right?