Keep a smoke-free home these wildfire ridden weeks

As wildfires continue to sweep across Utah, the air quality has significantly deteriorated, posing serious health risks to residents. One of the most alarming incidents occurred over the weekend, just above Salt Lake City, forcing some residents to evacuate as flames threatened homes. 

The city has endured a week of intense heat and persistent haze, with smoke from multiple fires contributing to hazardous air quality. Additionally, Utah is facing one of the worst fires in the country right now, the Silver King fire in Fishlake National Forest. The blaze has consumed nearly 15,000 acres. 

In addition to the increased ozone pollution from our ongoing heat wave (ozone formation is catalyzed by heat) Utahns are also contending with smoke and particulate matter from fires. A combination of human recklessness, forest mismanagement practices (thinning, slash pile burning, and prescribed burns) and the climate crisis, are key factors contributing to longer wildfire seasons,and larger and more dangerous wildfires seasons year after year in the West, and throughout the world. 

Wood smoke, including wildfire smoke, is the most toxic type of pollution the average person is ever exposed to. The smoke is highly saturated with numerous toxic chemicals, and compared to smokestack and tailpipe emissions,  the particles are extremely small making them more easily inhaled, more difficult to exhale, more easily picked up in the lungs by the blood stream, more easily spread throughout the body, and more likely to penetrate the cells and tissue of all critical organs. All the diseases and poor health outcomes we know are connected to air pollution, are all the more associated with wood and wildfire smoke.  It’s crucial to minimize exposure to wildfire smoke to protect your health, even more so for infants, children, and pregnant mothers. 

Here are some tips on how to protect yourself and your family: 

• Keep windows and doors closed and use particulate air (HEPA) filters in your air purifiers. 
• If you don’t have an air purifier, consider creating a DIY air filter using a box fan and a MERV 13 furnace filter. 
• Avoid activities that increase indoor pollution, such as smoking (obviously), using candles, cooking food on a stove, especially if you have a gas stove (use a crock pot when possible), and minimize your use of hot water if you have a gas water heater.
• Avoid exercising outdoors until the air quality improves. Try a YouTube video if you don’t have a gym membership! 
• Stay informed about current air quality levels before planning any outdoor activities, monitor the air quality index (AQI) using reliable sources, we like PurpleAir’s. 
• Remember that air quality is generally better early in the morning or later in the evening when the sun is less intense, so plan your activities accordingly to reduce exposure to harmful pollutants.
• A healthy diet, high in anti-oxidants, can help offset the inflammation of “free radicals” that are created by inhaling air pollution.