British Columbia suffered through its worst fire season in at least six decades this year, with more than 11,500 square kilometres of land burning and hundreds of homes and other buildings destroyed. The fires are expected to continue into the fall.
They forced more than 45,000 British Columbians to leave their homes, and 12,000 people still remain on evacuation alerts even in September. Smoke from the fires also blanketed the surrounding areas, resulting in air quality warnings even provinces away.
Experts worry that fires like this are becoming the new normal, and that rates will continue to rise in B.C. and Alberta, as well as the U.S. – much of the west coast of the States is also currently burning. And it’s not just North America: Australia has had serious fires this year as well.
At the same time, Canadian researchers are looking into the health effects of forest fires, spurred in part by the wildfire in Fort McMurray last year, which sparked the evacuation of the entire town.
Those health impacts of forest fires are wide ranging, from people having post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after evacuations, to problems controlling asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease-like symptoms from the smoke. Here’s what we know:
Where there’s smoke, there’s pulmonary issues
When it comes to the health impacts from forest fires, firefighters are much more affected than the general population. Nicola Cherry, an epidemiologist at the University of Alberta, is studying the health of firefighters after the Fort McMurray fire. In her preliminary research, she found that “a significant number of them – even those without existing conditions – had respiratory problems like wheezing and breathlessness” four months after the fire. (They’re still researching longer-term effects). Those who were from the local area, who fought the wildfires for longer, were most at risk.
For the general population, the impact from the fires is similar to what you’d see from air pollution from other sources, such as heavy traffic. That’s because forest fire smoke and urban pollution share a key ingredient: fine particulate matter. These tiny particles get deep into the lungs, causing irritation and inflammation that can affect all parts of the body. But because the smoke is so much worse than it is on a bad traffic day in Toronto, those effects are magnified.
The number one impact of forest fire smoke is on breathing problems, especially among the 12 percent of Canadians who have asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Exposure to smoke results in increased visits to doctors and the emergency department for breathing problems, and increased hospitalization as well. “When there’s a really high air pollution event, the people who are affected might have trouble controlling their respiratory illness,” says Colleen Reid, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and the author of a review of the health effects of exposure to wildfire smoke. There’s also some evidence that smoke is linked to heart attacks, and to slightly lower birth weights when pregnant women are exposed to it.
Overall, there’s a small increase in the number of deaths during very smoky days, mostly from people with pre-existing health issues. “Anybody with pre-existing disease within the population is going to be at higher risk, but we don’t expect new incidence of disease because of these smoke episodes,” explains Sarah Henderson, a senior scientist of Environmental Health Services for the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.
Evacuation to avoid smoke inhalation isn’t necessarily the answer. Evacuating people “is incredibly expensive and stressful, and its effectiveness is questionable,” says Henderson. “We’ve found that by the time people were evacuated, the smoke was clearing in half of the cases. That’s a lot of expense and stress without a lot of public health benefit.”
Instead, the recommendation is generally to “shelter in place.” That’s means that on smoky days, people should limit their time outdoors, not exercise outside, and turn on their air conditioning or use a portable air cleaner. (Masks that have an N-95 rating also work, but they must be fitted properly and can make breathing more difficult, so they’re only recommended for people who work outside.)
Over time, researchers expect we’ll likely see cumulative health effects as well. “The more smoky summers we have, the more it will change the lifetime exposure profile of Canadians, and that puts us at higher risk of developing chronic diseases such as asthma, heart disease and cancer,” says Henderson. But we’re lucky that across Canada in general, there is good baseline air quality. That means forest fires aren’t going to affect health as much as, say, smoking cigarettes; it’s likely more in line with the amount of air pollution you’d be exposed to from living in a big city.
Mental health issues & evacuations
Firefighters don’t just have physical effects; they’re also at a high risk of PTSD. Cherry explains that in Fort McMurray, “people who were from the original area, who were fighting fires in their own backyard, were very much more susceptible [to mental health issues] than people who flew in.”
The general population was also seriously affected. Unpublished research suggests nearly 13 percent of the population of Fort McMurray suffered from PTSD six months after the fires. “It’s well known that when individuals experience life threatening trauma, many will develop anxiety disorders, and some will develop PTSD. Clearly large forest fires that put people at risk can trigger this,” says Peter Silverstone, a psychiatrist who is researching the effects of the Fort McMurray fires on children. “There’s also a sense of loss: losing your home, job, or possessions can have major psychological impacts.”
In Fort McMurray, much of the area affected included Indigenous communities, says Stephanie Montesanti, a health services and policy researcher at the University of Alberta who is beginning research focused on the impacts of the fires on First Nations communities this fall. Around Fort McMurray, there were three communities that were devastated by the fires, and in those, 70 percent of the residents were First Nations or Metis.
In B.C., many Indigenous communities were evacuated because of a risk of fire and, less often, because of smoke as well, says Evan Adams, MD and chief medical officer for the First Nations Health Authority in B.C. He says that since the fires, they’ve seen both the innate strength of their communities and the need for more mental health and spiritual support.
One issue over the summer was that there wasn’t enough communication with leaders around evacuating, making communities feel like they had lost control of the ability to decide whether to stay or go. “One of the chiefs was profoundly angry, and said, Why do you have the ability to declare an evacuation? And one of them actually actively defied an evacuation order, and he kept whoever wanted to stay in the community with him,” says Adams.
Another issue is the enduring impact of past trauma, such as that from residential schools. “The Indigenous population have been through trauma before, so when they experience trauma again, through a wildfire, it can be very triggering,” Adams explains. “[After this summer], people have been saying to us, we didn’t get burned alive, but boy, our mental health suffered. It hurt us profoundly.”
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I live in Tappen, very smoky and bad smell. I am on Dialysis three times a week in Vernon. If I had to evacuate, what can I do? I will be 77 on July 23 rd. I have both Covid shots.
Dale, gingertwinkle777@gmail.com.
Hello.This post was extremely motivating, particularly because I was investigating for thoughts on this subject last Thursday.
While short term exposure to wild fire smoke might not create new ‘disease’, a recent study on the link between increased rates of heart attacks and PM2.5 (“Biomass Burning as a Source of Ambient Fine Particulate Air Pollution and Acute Myocardial Infarction”) showed seniors had an increased risk (6%) if they were exposed to even an average of 5 ug/m3 increase in PM2.5 over a few days (keep in mind that Kamloops was experiencing measurements well over 300 ug/m3). These folks did not necessarily have a pre-existing condition (the study didn’t track that I believe). More importantly, the risk of heart attack significantly increased (to 19%) when the PM2.5 came from wood smoke.
The mild warnings from the Air Quality Health Index during some very high smoke days seemed totally out of whack with what we know about both short- and long-term exposure to wood smoke.
Considerate and responsible people who live in crowded places that have cleaner heat like gas have butted out long ago with wood burning. But those who still burn wood have a bad attitude if anyone asks them to stop.
This article mentions some, but hardly all of the health consequences of wild fire smoke. Domestic burning of wood for heat is just as serious a problem, if not worse, because people who burn wood are exposing themselves and others to an entire winter of that pollution, an even longer time than a summer filled with forest fires. Below are 18 reasons why wood burning should be banned in all urban areas, from Doctors and Scientists Against Wood Smoke Pollution.
1. All air pollution is not created equal. Wood smoke is the most toxic type of pollution in most cities, more dangerous than auto pollution and most industrial pollution. Lighting a wood fire in your house is like starting up your own mini-toxic waste incinerator.
2. Lifetime cancer risk is 12 times greater for wood smoke compared to an equal volume of second hand cigarette smoke.
3. Burning 10 lbs. of wood for one hour, releases as much PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) as 35,000 packs of cigarettes.
4. Toxic free-radical chemicals in wood smoke are biologically active 40 times longer than the free radicals in cigarette smoke.
5. Wood smoke is the third largest source of dioxins, one of the most intensely toxic compounds known to science.
6. The very small size of wood particles make them seven times more likely to be inhaled than other particulate pollution.
7. Wood smoke easily penetrates homes of neighbors creating concentrations up to 88% as high as outdoor air.
8. If you smell wood smoke, you know you are being harmed. The sweet smell comes from deadly compounds like benzene. Once you can smell the smoke you know the concentration of particulate matter is dangerously high.
9. The most dangerous components of air pollution are much higher inside homes that burn wood than non-burners, as much as 500% higher. The characterization of a wood burning ban “punishing the little people” is easily undermined because a ban would actually benefit the burners themselves more than anyone else, especially their own children
10. Considering the most dangerous part of particulate pollution, wood burning produces as much overall as all our cars during the winter.
11. We require emissions testing of all our cars. Great. An average house heated with wood emits about as much winter time pollution as driving between 90-400 cars all winter, but we don’t emissions test wood stoves. Why not?
12. The inhalable particulate pollution from one woodstove is equivalent to the amount emitted from 3,000 gas furnaces producing the same amount of heat.
13. Emissions from modern combustion appliances for wood logs may increase ten-fold if they are not operated appropriately, and most of them are not.
14. Wood smoke is the only pollution emitted right where people spend most of their time. It disperses poorly, is not evenly distributed and stays in the air longer because of its small size. Concentrations can be 100 times higher for neighbors of wood burners than what is captured at the nearest monitoring station. Real local “pollution victims” are created even when overall community levels are low.
15. If your neighbor is a regular wood burner, and follows all the rules, i.e. doesn’t burn during yellow or red alert days, but does during all “green” days, you can go an entire winter without having one single day of clean air.
16. According to California’s Bay Area Air Quality Management District, burning wood costs the rest of the community, primarily your next door neighbors, at least $2 in extra medical expenses for every lb of wood that you burn. An average fire then costs your neighbors about $40.
17. Long ago most communities passed ordinances protecting people from second hand cigarette smoke. Ironically those laws protect people at places they don’t necessarily have to be (restaurants, stores, buildings, etc). But in the one place they have to be, their home, they have no protection from something even worse—wood smoke. People should have just as much protection from wood smoke as from cigarette smoke and for all the same reasons. We don’t allow people to blow cigarette smoke in your face, why should we allow people to blow wood smoke into your home?
18. Wood burning is not even close to carbon neutral over the short term, the next few decades, and it is that time frame that will make or break the climate crisis. Burning wood is extremely in inefficient. Per unit of heat created wood produces even more CO2 than the fossil fuels do. Furthermore, the black carbon particulate matter released enhances the absorption of radiant heat in the atmosphere, making global warming worse, and prematurely melts already imperiled mountain snow pack.
Living beside a home that heats with wood is as bad as any forest fire pollution and can last as long as 7 months of non stop high emissions harming health and climate
Air Pollution Levels can be 100 times higher for neighbours of wood burners then for others in the same community!
Horrible experiences for our citizens in BC, and last year in AB. It is not just wildfires that contribute to COPD and cardiovascular issues in BC. Wood burning is one of the big polluters in BC, both from wood stoves and outdoor burning. Off course, the level of pollution from the wildfires is much higher on a shorter term than wood burning which results in lower levels of PM2.5 (and other particles) than wildfires, but the exposure is continuous over an entire lifetime for the citizens who live in those areas. Little to no legislature to protect citizens. We can do little about the wildfires, but we can decrease or eliminate the chronic exposure to these pollutants affecting the health of all of us. Thank you for this article.