[ranger rock]

[mbravenboer]

Good info AlpineRose, thanks for sharing. The ozone thing is a bit controversial yeah. I understood/assumed that not using the ionizer on mine would prevent ozone issues, but I don't know enough about it to really be sure.

[gb]

Review of health effects from wildfire smoke: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/08958378.2016.1145771?journalCode=iiht20 And this: http://theconversation.com/wildfire-smoke-and-health-5-questions-answered-85717

[uww]

I'd be interested in knowing how this compares to sitting around a campfire.

[treeswarper]

[cambajamba]

At least with the campfire I can move a little and get five to ten seconds of clean air before the wind inevitably shifts the smoke directly back into my face, haha!

[Cyclopath]

[thunderhead]

7 cigarettes per day doesn't sound that bad if you get it for only a brief period... like a few days or a week.

[Schenk]

[Arginine]

[AlpineRose]

[Mikey]

There is a lot of research regarding the harmful health effects of inhaled particles and air pollution. Many powerful groups in the US have been against efforts to reduce airborne particle concentrations. The reduction of diesel engine fine particles was pioneered by the California Govt who did a large research project showing human health correlated with monitored airborne diesel soot concentrations. The California research finally forced the US Govt to implement diesel engine soot emission regulations. OK, I know, this thread is about forest fire smoke. There is lots of research on wood fire smoke and the results are published in reports and journals. U of Wash Professor Tim Larson, Dept of Civil and Environmental Engineering has been involved in fine particle and wood smoke research. Some years ago I was surprised to learn that inhaled fine particles can migrate via nose sinus passages directly into the brain shown by research using radioactively labeled particles. The research showed that inhaled particles quickly move into many parts of the human body. The Catholic University, Leuven Belgium, published an image of a full human body scan showing where the radioactively tagged particles were deposited but I could not find this image via the internet. Below is some information from a short article in the medical journal "Circulation" “Passage of Inhaled Particles Into the Blood Circulation in Humans” Circulation 2002 Vol 105 pp 411 Catholic University, Leuven Belgium To assess to what extent and how rapidly inhaled pollutant particles pass into the systemic irculation, we measured, in 5 healthy volunteers, the distribution of radioactivity after the inhalation of radioactive Technegas," an aerosol consisting mainly of ultrafine Technetium-labeled carbon particles (<100nm or <0.1 micron). Radioactivity was detected in blood already at 1 minute, reached a maximum between 10 and 20 minutes, and remained at this level up to 60 minutes. Thin layer chromatography of blood showed that in addition to a species corresponding to oxidized Technetium, ie, pertechnetate, there was also a species corresponding to particle -bound Technetium. Gamma camera images showed substantial radioactivity over the liver and other areas of the body. [Note that Technetium-99m is a metastable nuclear isomer of technetium-99 (itself an isotope of technetium ), symbolized as 99m Tc, that is used in tens of millions of medical diagnostic procedures annually, making it the most commonly used medical radioisotope . Technetium-99m is used as a radioactive tracer and can be detected in the body by medical equipment ( gamma cameras ).] Conclusions: —We conclude that inhaled 99m Tc labeled ultrafine carbon particles pass rapidly into the systemic circulation, and this process could account for the well - established, but poorly understood, extrapulmonary (exterior of the lung) effects of air pollution. In my opinion, inhaled forest fire smoke, campfire smoke, and smoke in general is harmful to human health. There was a tire fire north of Seattle (Cathcart fire) and local governments decided to let the tire fire burn saying they did not want water sprayed on the burning tires to carry pollutants into the Snohomish river. About 6 months later there was an EPA short course on Toxic Air Pollutants at the U of Wash and an EPA expert gave a talk about the toxicity of the tire fire smoke and its effect on the surrounding residents. The EPA expert said the tire fire smoke was not toxic and did not hurt the residents. In the short course audience were Wash Dept of Ecology employees who had measured the toxic concentrations of the tire fire smoke and the employees said the EPA expert's data and conclusions were inaccurate. Another example is the Sept 11 (9 - 11) crash of the jet aircrafts into the New York Trade Center and the EPA said the smoke emitted from the burning trade center was not harmful. This EPA claim of the smoke being non-toxic was soon challenged by a chemistry professor at U of California Davis who went to New York, sampled the smoke, and analyzed the smoke samples at his U of Calif. lab. There are many cases of people exposed to the New York Trade Center fire smoke experiencing harmful health effects, especially fire fighters and law enforcement personnel. To my knowledge, there is no margin of safety in the present US Govt (EPA) ambient air quality standards for particulates. In other words, harmful health effects occur when inhaling particle air pollution at concentrations below the EPA air quality standards. "Association between Particulate Matter and emergency room visits, hospital admissions and mortality in Spokane, Washington"., Journal Exposure Analysis and Enviromental Epidemiology 2005 vol 15(2), 153-159.

[uww]

[joker]

The good news is that at least in the greater metro area around Pugetopolis, particulate levels plummeted this morning. AQI at the nearest station to my home is currently 20, down from close to 200 late last night. The windows are open and it is lovely. For indoor air cleaning, we just had our furnace on "circulate" which moves air through the HEPA rated fiber filter that I've installed in the system. With the windows closed, the particulates in the house tend also to fall to the floor w/in hours. It sucked to have indoor temps higher than outdoor the past few nights but it was better than waking up with a runny nose and irritated sinuses and eyes and a raspy chest. I'm sure some of y'all endure the smoke better than some others. Me no like! (I also don't enjoy sitting in campfire smoke, and tend to avoid some car campground in summer though being next to the beach barrier at places like Cape Disappointment seems to be a good strategy for staying out of the worse of the smog).

[grannyhiker]

Portland area is still at an Air Quality Index of 167 (unhealthy for everyone) and the air pollution advisory for western Oregon has been extended to 4 pm. No sign of wind around here. Normally Troutdale is a very windy spot! Evidently everything is stagnant here. At least my house has cooled down to 74. Because of my 82-year-old lungs (already damaged by smoke a year ago), I won't go out, even with my N95 mask, until the AQI gets below 100. I hope this does happen this afternoon, because I'm getting low on food!