In early September, The United States’ mid and northwest regions begin their driest and deadliest season, creating ample opportunity for Wildfires. At the same time, the smoke from the central Canadian wildfires pours into the United States. For North Carolina, that means constant vigilance as low atmospheric winds blow a combined stream of Canadian and Oregonian smoke toward NC.
“I have an air quality index on my phone, and I’ve been getting low air quality notices a lot more, and I have been out of breath more,” said asthmatic freshman Vivian Smith.
According to the EPA, Asthmatics, or those afflicted with Asthma, are at risk during this time of year due to the excess smoke resulting from these fires. Many asthmatics make use of an Air Quality Index (AQI) app, to inform them of the weather conditions. At UNC Asheville, many don’t.
“I didn’t even know they the wildfires were a concern until just now,” Smith said.
Despite being the most at-risk group for smoke—induced sickness, a trend across the afflicted shows that most asthmatics take a haphazard approach to protecting themselves against incoming smoke.
“I do check the AQI but it’s more of a hobbyist thing,” said Freshman Alex Bailey, who has conditional Asthma.
This trend echoes across asthmatics at UNCA. Many take a less concerned approach than usual from an at-risk community in an at-risk situation.
“I have multiple inhalers, I don’t use them often,” said Freshman Dylan Brookshire, who said he’s had Asthma as long as he can remember. “I mean, what are the choices? I just don’t go outside?”
UNCA Alumnus and Canadian wildfire forecaster Daniel Martin works for the Albertan government to track and forecast wildfires on a meteorological level, he said the wind patterns the smoke travels on are naturally occurring.
“In the highest level, winds in our part of the earth typically go from west to east. There are of course variations in that, but on the larger scale, things go from west to east. In general, anything that happens on the West Coast is going to in some form or fashion make it to the east coast,” Martin said.
Martin said the large-scale solution to widespread forest fire awareness and smoke safety is implementation in Google Maps, and other pre-existing apps.
“Some of it’s kind of already been implemented, a lot of causal forecasting apps, even google maps now have that feature of showing air quality plus wildfires,” Martin said.
According to Martin, whichever app is the most widely used by the populace is the best to use to stay updated. Martin also points towards the use of face masks for the particularly vulnerable.
“It’s common to want to use a cloth mask because masks are associated with air quality. It’s my understanding that the cloth isn’t enough. It might help a little bit, you want something with a proper filter, like an N95,” Martin said.
Though shortages existed many years ago due to widespread use during the Coronavirus Pandemic, the average student should have no trouble acquiring these in the current day, though there are other preventive measures to take without wearing a mask according to Martin.
“In general, it can sometimes be a little bit less terrible during the afternoon hours. In the morning you have a cold inversion where most of the air steeps to the ground and the smoke might be less dense,” Martin said.
Martin said despite these mitigative strategies, the best efforts are preventative.
“At least for me, seeing a number doesn’t really help contextualize it. I think if the public were shown visually where it’s coming from, where it’s going and how long it’ll be there, that might drive more reality than just having simple numbers in place,” Martin said.
Martin said this integration that is targeted towards the less meteorologically inclined is the large-scale solution needed to ensure that the at-risk population takes precautions.
“If you see smoke coming, that might be more concerning than just having a textbox that says, ‘Smoke is coming’,” Martin said.
According to Martin there is some doubt about the future of the atmosphere and how we can take better care of the climate. Martin said we are on the right track to being better at forecasting and making not just asthmatics but everyone aware of the AQI in the area.
“It’s not just people who are sensitive to smoke, everyone’s quality of life to some degree is reduced when they go outside. I’d say there’s still quite a bit of work to be done,” Martin said.
