4 days ago
Commissioner of Health gives tips on how to handle poor air quality
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — The National Interagency Fire Centre in Idaho is sending crews to Canada to help battle the rash of wildfires that are bringing down the air quality in Western New York.
'What we used to call fire season, we now refer to as the fire year just because fire activity can really happen at any time of year,' said Rebecca Paterson, a public affairs specialist at the center.
Paterson says a preparedness level scale from one to five is used to measure the amount of resources available to battle wildfires.
'In Canada, they're actually at a PL five right now, preparedness level of five, so they are maxed out and that is often where we find ourselves in the position of: the United States is cooperating with them, using our cooperative agreement to send resources,' said Paterson.
According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, there are more than 200 fires burning in the country as of Friday. Paterson says it's hard to predict how long it will take to put the fires out or what will happen to air quality.
'There's still hope that this won't be a really long duration event for those that are feeling the smoke impact from this, but I mean certainly having fires at this time of the season when typically places are kind of going into a hotter and drier season, there is some potential that those impacts could last for a while,' said Paterson.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has issued an air quality health advisory for areas throughout New York State, including Western New York, that expires midnight on Saturday.
'Just like you check the weather forecast, it's really good to check the forecast for air quality,' said Erie County Commissioner of Health Dr. Gale Burstein. 'When this poor air quality gets into our lungs we might have symptoms with difficulty breathing, wheezing, coughing. It's also an irritant, you might have itchy eyes, you might have a headache, sore throat–so all of those are things we have to think about.'
She says those most vulnerable to poor air quality include people with chronic lung disease, chronic heart disease, asthma, COPD, pregnant people, older adults, infants and young children, people who smoke, and people who work outside.
'If you or anybody in your house is in those categories, you should think about now how to prepare when the air quality does get bad,' said Dr. Burstein.
Dr. Burstein recommends people go to to check what the air quality is like in their community and in locations they plan to travel to.
'There's also long term effects that we won't see right now, so being exposed to this poor air quality can make us increased risk in the future for lung disease and heart disease, including strokes so we really want to make sure that we minimize our exposure to this poor air quality,' said Dr. Burstein.
She says the best option when the air quality is poor is to stay inside. Those who can't are encouraged to use N95 masks and to drive with their windows up and their air conditioner on.
Hope Winter is a reporter and multimedia journalist who has been part of the News 4 team since 2021. See more of her work here.
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