Air Quality Unheathy for Sensitive Groups

By WILLIAM KINCAID
and ERIN GARDNER
newsroom@dailystandard.com

CELINA - In a scene that has played out numerous times this somewhat surreal summer, area residents awakened on Monday morning to hazy conditions engendered by Canadian wildfires.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency for the fifth time since early June issued a statewide Air Quality Advisory on Monday with expectations of the Air Quality Index to range from "unhealthy for sensitive groups" to "unhealthy."

"We can see that there's a haze," said Auglaize County Emergency Management Agency Director Troy Anderson. "I saw that this morning with the sun almost an orangish tint, and with this haze that we have, that is the result from those forest fires."

The haze was visible in Mercer County, too.

"Oh definitely, especially this morning more than this afternoon," said Mercer County EMA Director Mike Robbins.

OEPA issued its first-ever statewide Air Quality Advisory on June 7 as smoke from Canadian wildfires adversely impacted air quality. The same advisory was made on June 8, June 28 and June 29.

Robbins said air quality had cleared locally for a few days because of weather pattern changes, "but now the jet stream's coming down from the north again and so here we are."

"It's just from the fires up there," Robbins continued. "Canada is as big as us but they just don't have the population. So they've got acres and acres … of forests that there's no roads going into them and nobody lives there. So they're just going to burn until they either run out of fuel or they get plenty of rain to actually put it out."

Robbins, 65, said he's lived in Mercer County all his life and can't remember such a stretch of bad air-quality days. After all, Mercer County is home to flatlands and little breezes, he said.

Anderson made a similar comment about the conditions in Auglaize County.

"We did have a time … that we did have some problems with the air quality but as far as being this extended like that, I think this is the longest," he said. "I think the other reason we're seeing more of it is because it's there in Canada and it's closer to us than what the others (forest fires, etc.) have been."

Neither Robbins' nor Anderson's offices fielded any calls this summer from people concerned about the effects of bad air on their health or medical problems relating from it, especially among those with respiratory ailments such as COPD, asthma or lung cancer.

"But that doesn't mean that's not happening," Robbins said. "I think people with those kind of afflictions are very good at watching. Some of those, like (those with) COPD, they'll have trouble just going out on a real hot and muggy day because the air is heavy and all that moisture."

When air quality is in this range, people who are in sensitive groups due to medical conditions, exposure conditions or innate susceptibility may experience health effects during outdoor activities, according to an Ohio EPA news release. To decrease the potential for health issues, sensitive groups of people - children, elderly, people with asthma or COPD - should limit prolonged or strenuous outdoor activity.  

"It's very possible that they may have experienced some worsening symptoms due to that," said Auglaize County Health Commissioner Oliver Fisher on the potential impact of bad air on sensitive groups. "As far as for the health department, I'm only aware of maybe a handful of calls that we got during the time of elevated levels of people seeking some advise."

Generally the health department dispensed the same advice given by the Ohio Department of Health.

"During these heightened times it's better for those people, especially with those conditions, to stay indoors using their air conditioning, hopefully with a good HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filter to remove the particulates from the air," Fisher said. "If their symptoms do get worse - any tightening of the chest or difficulty breathing- … they should definitely call their primary physician or doctor that's been treating them for that condition to speak with them if there's anything additional that they should do or be aware of."

Jason Menchhofer, health commissioner for Mercer County Health District, also touched on the consequences of air pollution, including to those considered healthy.

"Exposure to particulate matter pollution can cause temporary symptoms such as irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat; coughing; phlegm; chest tightness; and shortness of breath, even among healthy people," Menchhofer said in an email. "People with lung or respiratory diseases may experience difficulty breathing as deeply as normal, coughing, chest discomfort, wheezing, shortness of breath, and unusual fatigue. Exposure to unusually high levels of particulate matter can also worsen heart and vascular conditions."

To protect themselves, people with heart or lung disease, older adults, children and teens should shorten the amount of time they are active outdoors and choose less strenuous activities when possible, he said.

Other precautions people can take include spending time in a room they can close off from outside air, staying hydrated and using a central air conditioning system if possible, according to ODH. Avoid using candles, gas, propane, wood-burning stoves, fireplaces and aerosol sprays. Smoking tobacco products and vacuuming may worsen indoor air pollution.