Wildfire smoke has caused rise in Covid infections and deaths, study finds

Posted on August 18, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Researchers speculate that smoke helps spread the virus and weakens lungs, making symptoms more severe

Pollutants in smoke billowing from huge wildfires in the west of America have probably caused an increase in Covid-19 infections and deaths across several US states, new research has found.

Last year more than 10m acres of land were torched by wildfires, with five out of the six largest fires ever documented in California occurring within just a few months. The burning trees, shrubs and buildings gave off enormous plumes of smoke containing small particles of soot.

The spread of these tiny particles, known as PM2.5, probably caused a spike in Covid cases and deaths in parts of the US west, the new paper has discovered. The smoke helped raise the coronavirus infection rate by nearly 20% in certain counties, with half of all Covid deaths in some places attributable to the pollution, according to the study. “

In some counties the association was very strong indeed – on days with lots of wildfire smoke the Covid cases went up by a lot,” said Francesca Dominici, a professor at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health who co-authored the research, which was led by Xiaodan Zhou, a researcher at Esri. “Combining wildfires with this pandemic can have a really disastrous effect. It’s disturbing.”

Previous research, which Dominici was also involved in, found that a small rise in people’s long-term exposure to air pollution is associated with an 11% increase in deaths from Covid. Another study from last year suggests that 15% of all Covid-19 deaths around the world are attributable to dirty air.

Researchers have said more work needs to be done to fully establish the connections but there was now compelling evidence that polluted air is exacerbating outbreaks of the coronavirus. It is thought that emitted pollutants can help spread the infection, while also weakening people’s lungs before they are infected with Covid, raising the likelihood they will get severely ill or die.

The latest paper, published in Science Advances, analyzed 92 counties across California, Washington and Oregon and sought to eliminate causes of Covid increases other than nearby wildfires. It found that the wildfires had the largest impact upon Covid cases in the counties of Butte, California, and Whitman, Washington. The greatest influence on Covid deaths, meanwhile, was found in Butte county and Calaveras county, California.

Last year’s spate of wildfires may well be surpassed in 2021, with huge blazes under way such as the Bootleg fire in Oregon, which at one point was the size of Los Angeles, and the Dixie fire in northern California, which is the largest in the state’s recorded history. The town of Greenville, California, was almost completely destroyed by fire last week.

Smoke from the fires has been detected from space, sweeping as far east as New York, where it turned the skies hazy. On Saturday, the city of Denver experienced the worst air quality in the world for several hours due to smoke from western wildfires.

“We only looked at counties in the west but I’d speculate that it doesn’t matter where you are, if you are getting high levels of PM2.5 from wildfire smoke in New York, you will get the same catastrophic effect,” said Dominici. “It’s very concerning. I’d say to anyone living in a place affected by wildfires to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Longer-term, this shows us, yet again, the importance of fighting climate change.”

Kristie Ebi, an epidemiologist at the University of Washington who was not involved in the research, said the study “adds to the weight of evidence that air pollution may increase sensitivity” to the coronavirus.

Ebi added that lockdowns and mask mandates were not fully factored into the paper, although the researchers did measure people’s mobility during the study period.

George Thurston, an expert in environmental medicine at New York University who also was not involved in the research, said: “The study findings are very plausible, in that tiny combustion particles are well known to pick up and carry other airborne toxins deep into the lung.”

Wildfire smoke has caused rise in Covid infections and deaths, study finds | Wildfires | The Guardian
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Nearly every London school in high air pollution area, report says

Posted on August 17, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Almost every London school is in an area where air pollution levels exceed World Health Organization limits, City Hall analysis suggests.

Figures show 98% of schools are in areas with toxic air quality, compared with 24% outside the capital.

Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah whose nine-year-old daughter died from pollution said “it was like lessons had not been learned”.

Across England 3.1m schoolchildren are affected.

Excessive levels of air pollution can stunt lung growth and worsen chronic diseases.

The analysis is based on figures from 2019, before the pandemic struck the UK.

City Hall said it shows the average concentration of particulate matter was a third higher at schools in London than in the rest of England.

Of the 30 local authorities with the highest particulate matter at schools, all but two were London boroughs.

‘Incredibly upset’

Air pollution was found to have caused the death of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debra in Lewisham, south-east London, a coroner ruled last December.

Her mother Rosamund, who has spent the last year campaigning on improving air quality, described the figures as “shocking”.

She said: “I am not surprised but incredibly upset about it. Doing nothing is not acceptable where I’m coming from.

“It’s the reality I have witnessed. It seems like lessons from my daughter’s death have not been learned.”

The ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) – where more polluting vehicles pay extra to travel in London – is set to expand in October to include areas inside the North and South Circular.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: “I’m doing everything in my power to stop young Londoners breathing air so filthy that it damages their lungs and causes thousands of premature deaths every year.”

Nick Bowes, Chief Executive of the Centre for London think tank, described the figures as “shocking”.

He added: “The expansion of the ULEZ in the autumn will be a huge step, but City Hall could be bolder and adopt a pay-per-mile road user charging scheme which would deliver cleaner air, increase active travel and reduce congestion, as well as provide a substantial income stream to help plug Transport for London’s finances.”

Nearly every London school in high air pollution area, report says – BBC News

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Research Shows Regular Exercise, Even in Polluted Areas, Can Lower Risk of Death

Posted on August 16, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Regular exercise, even performed in areas with air pollution, can reduce the risk of death from natural causes, according to new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

“Habitual exercise reduces the risk of death regardless of exposure to air pollution, and air pollution generally increases the risk of death regardless of habitual exercise. Thus, habitual exercise should be promoted as a health improvement strategy, even for people residing in relatively polluted areas,” writes Dr. Xiang Qian Lao, Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, China, with coauthors.

They conducted a large study, over 15 years from 2001 to 2016, with 384 130 adults in Taiwan, seeking to understand the effects of regular exercise and long-term exposure to fine particle matter on the risk of death from natural causes. The researchers found that a higher level of regular exercise compared with inactivity was beneficial, even in polluted areas, although less exposure to pollution was better.

“We found that a high level of habitual exercise and a low level of exposure to air pollution was associated with lower risk of death from natural causes, whereas a low level of habitual exercise and a high level of exposure was associated with higher risk of death,” write the authors.

This study adds to several other smaller studies conducted in the United States, Denmark, and Hong Kong that found that regular exercise, even in polluted areas, is beneficial.

The authors say that “further studies in areas with more severe air pollution are required to examine the applicability of our findings. Our study reinforces the importance of air pollution mitigation, such as to reduce the harmful effects of air pollution and maximize the beneficial effects of regular exercise.“

In a related commentary, authors from the Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, Australia, argue that physical inactivity and air pollution should be considered as “syndemics” as together they influence behavior and health outcomes. Recommendations for safe exercise in polluted areas, such as indoor exercise, and avoiding walking and biking on congested roads, can contribute to inequalities as people of lower socioeconomic status often lack these options.

“[R]isk reduction approaches that do not address the root causes of noncommunicable diseases could exacerbate health inequalities,” write Drs. Ding and Elbarbary. “People should not be forced to choose between physical activity and air pollution.”

“Both physical inactivity and air pollution have detrimental effects on health. Staying active should not be at the cost of compromised health from air pollution. Addressing both major public health issues through synergistic, upstream, system-level approaches would lead to long-term health benefits for humans and the planet,” write the commentary authors.

Research Shows Regular Exercise, Even in Polluted Areas, Can Lower Risk of Death
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Wildfire smoke in Siberia causes ‘stay at home’ instruction

Posted on August 13, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Yakutia leader declares ‘non-work’ day over health concerns as 22m acres burn in east Russia region

The leader of a Siberian region has declared Friday a non-working day and urged residents to stay at home as smoke from raging forest fires raised health concerns.

Aisen Nikolayev, the head of Yakutia, Russia’s largest and coldest region, which has been hard-hit by wildfires this year, said on Thursday that the day off would apply to the regional capital, Yakutsk, and several other districts.

In recent years wildfires have ripped across Russia’s vast territory at an unprecedented scale that experts blame on climate change, negligence and underfunded forestry management services.

Nikolayev said in remarks carried by the RIA Novosti news agency: “Smoke from the fires has an extremely negative effect on people’s well-being. In order to minimise these consequences today I signed a decree declaring tomorrow a non-working day for 11 municipalities.” Nikolayev recommended that residents spent the day at home.

Yakutsk airport was experiencing delays on Thursday with flights being cancelled or postponed due to poor visibility caused by the smoke.

Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, this week ordered reinforcements to fight the Siberian fires and sent the head of the emergencies ministry to Yakutia to oversee the operations there.

In the vast and sparsely populated region blazes have so far burned through more than 9.2m hectares (22.7m acres), an area the size of Portugal, according to Russia’s forestry agency.

Local firefighters told AFP that they lacked the people, equipment and resources to deal with the scale of the wildfires.

Critics have pointed to a 2015 law that allows regions to ignore blazes if the cost of fighting fires outweighs the expected damage, saying the legislation provides cover for authorities to avoid fighting wildfires.

The US space agency Nasa over the weekend said its satellite images showed wildfire smoke from Yakutia moving on to the north pole, calling it a first in history.

Wildfire smoke in Siberia causes ‘stay at home’ instruction | Wildfires | The Guardian

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Of air pollution and ‘environmental inequality’

Posted on August 12, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Now more than ever, the world’s major cities are faced with air pollution that threatens the health of their inhabitants. But to ensure protection for all, policies to improve air quality must now take into account social and environmental inequalities.

Studies conducted in the United States and Europe say ethnic minorities and people living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods are more vulnerable to fine-particle pollution.

According to 2016 estimates, 56% of cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants in high-income countries do not meet World Health Organization (WHO) air-quality limits. In metropolises in low- and middle-income countries, this rate increases to 97%.

Moreover, local greening policies implemented by communities do not benefit all populations equally, points out a scientific article published on Aug 6 in the journal “Nature Communications”.

“Urban greening cannot compensate for systemic injustices that lead to disproportionate burdens in environmental health, and therefore, green infrastructure investments need to be balanced with other efforts to ameliorate air pollution injustices,” write the authors of the study.

These observations are based on the analysis of various studies published in recent years. Research published last April in “Science Advances” shows that Black, Hispanic and Asian people are significantly more exposed to pollution than the rest of the population in several major United States cities.

“Blacks are exposed to greater-than-average concentrations from source types contributing 78% of exposure. Hispanics and Asians are disparately exposed to PM2.5 from 87% and 73% of sources, respectively,” outlines that study.

In the US, this phenomenon could, at least in part, be explained by residential segregation, particularly that linked to “red-lining”, a discriminatory housing policy that began in the 1930s.

Conducted in Maryland’s Baltimore and then expanded to 37 urban areas across the country in a second phase, the research shows how patterns of residential segregation have contributed to an uneven distribution of green infrastructure and the increased presence of pollution, flooding and urban heat islands.

‘Environmental inequalities’ in Europe

The link between air pollution and social inequalities is also apparent in Europe. A study published in 2017 in 16 major European cities suggested that from one city to another, city dwellers living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods are more affected by poor air quality.

Another study published in 2015 in “Plos One” estimates that in Paris, people living in poor neighbourhoods are three times more likely to die than the average person following a major pollution spike – even though they do not necessarily live in the most polluted neighborhoods.

According to the study, this increased risk of mortality may be associated with less access to health services, as well as poorly insulated housing and/or workplaces.

These links are complex to establish, insofar as multiple forms of discrimination are factors as well as the geographical and socioeconomic situation of the populations.

In sociology, the environmental risk factors on the health of individuals is defined by the term “environmental inequalities” or “ecological inequality”.

“Ecological issues are not independent of social issues. Populations are not equal in the face of environmental risks, in terms of both vulnerability and responsibility,” explains French economist Éloi Laurent in an article published in April.

“And, as the Yellow Vests crisis in France has shown, policies to combat climate change cannot ignore considerations of social justice.”


Of air pollution and ‘environmental inequality’ | Free Malaysia Today (FMT)

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Researchers develop method to better predict when wildfire smoke affects residents

Posted on August 11, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Last month, New York City and other cities along the east coast experienced some of the worst air pollution in the world. The cause? Wildfires in Canada, California, and Oregon so large they produced smoke that drifted thousands of miles. If smoke that dense can travel from one end of the U.S. to the other, imagine what it could do to your lungs.

Using satellites scientists can accurately see how far and wide wildfire smoke spreads across an area, but they have a more difficult time predicting whether the plumes are high in altitude or lower to the ground where it can gravely affect people’s health.

But a team of researchers led by University of Utah chemical engineering associate professor Heather A. Holmes has developed a method of combining a meteorological model with NASA satellite data to determine whether the wildfire smoke will stay high up or come down to the ground. That will lead to more accurate predictions of whether and when smoke from a nearby wildfire could reach people on the ground.

“Our hope is this technique gets incorporated into smoke forecasting as a way to improve warning systems related to smoke exposure,” says Holmes, whose research is focused on the physics and chemistry of air pollution.

Holmes’ research was published in the most recent issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. The first author was one of Holmes’s former graduate students, S. Marcela Loría-Salazar, who is now an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma’s School of Meteorology.

Before, scientists could not accurately predict whether wildfire smoke would actually reach the lower altitudes of an area where it can affect residents, even by examining satellite data of the smoke’s spread. For example, during the 2013 Yosemite Rim Fire in 2013, one of California’s largest wildfires that scorched more than 257,000 acres, they initially couldn’t explain why Fresno, Calif., had low levels of pollution even though satellite images from the fire showed smoke covering the city. It turns out the mountains created complex winds, and the smoke was actually in the upper level of the troposphere (the lowest region of the atmosphere) where it was separated from the Earth’s surface.

So Holmes and Loria-Salazar collaborated with NASA scientists and analyzed satellite data from the Yosemite Rim Fire along with ground observation data and developed a method to better understand the vertical smoke patterns. They examined what is called the “plume injection height” data from the satellite, an estimate of the top layer of the pollution, and the vertical meteorology at the time of the fire. With that, they developed a “smoke height/boundary ratio,” an estimate of how much of the smoke is going down to the surface of the Earth. Better understanding where the smoke is in the atmosphere vertically can help scientists also understand where the smoke will be downwind, says Holmes.

“There’s a lot of uncertainties in understanding the vertical mixing in the atmosphere, and that really drives where the smoke will end up,” she says.

With this new information, Holmes believes meteorologists, climatologists or air quality experts could possibly predict up to two or three days whether smoke from a wildfire could affect the health of residents in a nearby city.

“If you can forecast this, you can make more informed decisions on whether to have school closures, or you can give alerts on when to not go outside to exercise,” she says. “You can give people information to protect themselves better.”

Wood smoke produces microscopic particulate matter that can penetrate the lungs and adversely affect a person’s health, particularly those with lung and heart conditions, diabetes, older adults, younger children and pregnant women, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. And studies show that wildfire smoke not only affects people while they are outside, but it also seeps into homes and affects indoor air quality.

Researchers develop method to better predict when wildfire smoke affects residents — ScienceDaily
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Mongolias Capital Experiences Severe Air Pollution Due To Siberian Wildfires

Posted on August 10, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Air quality in the Mongolian capital city of Ulan Bator has been deteriorating dramatically due to smoke from massive wildfires raging in Russia’s Siberia, authorities said on Monday.

“Air quality in the capital city is now reaching very unhealthy level. Today, the average density of PM 2.5 in the city stayed at 151.5 micrograms per cubic meter, which is 15 times above WHO exposure recommendation,” the Mongolian national agency for meteorology and environment monitoring said in a statement.

The northern and central parts of Mongolia, including the capital city, have been covered with smoke since the middle of last week, which is from Russia’s Siberian wildfires.

Mongolias Capital Experiences Severe Air Pollution Due To Siberian Wildfires – UrduPoint
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Denver experienced the worst air quality of any major city in the world due to smoke from western wildfires

Posted on August 9, 2021 by Respro® UK Ltd

Denver experienced the worst air quality of any city in the world for several hours Saturday as heavy smoke from raging western wildfires polluted the city.

IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company, determined that Denver’s air was the most polluted early Saturday at an Air Quality Index of 167. The measurement is by US standards, where a higher number indicates poorer air quality.

The company tracks the AQI for 94 major world cities. Later on Saturday, the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, moved to the top spot with a US AQI of 178.

The polluted air is a symptom of the 107 wildfires that are currently burning in the US and which have scorched 2.1 million acres as of Saturday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

And it’s likely that the drought conditions fueling the fires will get worse before they get better.

“The fire outlook continues to reflect warmer and drier conditions leading to the high potential for severe wildfire activity throughout the western United States through the rest of summer and into the fall. Widespread high temperatures observed across areas in the West and with periods of lightning activity continue to exacerbate the wildfire situation,” the NIFC said on its website.

The wildfire season has been devastating for California, where the Dixie Fire — the nation’s largest active fire — continues to grow and destroy anything in its path.

The fire, which is burning in four California counties, swelled to 447,723 acres Saturday and remains 21% contained, according to Cal Fire.

Five people who were missing after the fire tore through the historic town of Greenville, California, have been found safe, the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office announced Saturday. A total of 21 unaccounted-for people are now confirmed safe, while authorities are still searching for five others, the office said.

Greenville was nearly leveled when the fire swept through it. In the community’s commercial center at Main Street and State Route 89, nearly every business appeared to have collapsed or been gutted, with flames still flickering in the debris up and down the sides of both streets, video recorded Wednesday by storm chaser Brandon Clement showed.

Fires across the region prompted California’s Placer County Public Health and the Placer County Air Pollution Control District to issue an air quality advisory Thursday, forecasting hazardous smoke impacts and warning residents to stay indoors.

“Sad to say, the prediction is correct,” Ann Hobbs, associate planner at the Placer County Air Pollution Control District, told CNN. Hobbs said officials had anticipated a change in the wind would bring poor air quality and smoke to residents living in the area.

“Avoid all unnecessary outdoor activity,” said Hobbs, adding that the air quality is the worst the area has seen all year.

Meanwhile, some areas within British Columbia are under evacuation orders or alerts as the White Rock Lake wildfire continues to spread, according to the British Columbia Wildfire Service.

The fire, burning near Vernon, has scorched about 135,900 acres. The city expanded its evacuation alert Friday night to include most of the city, according to a news release.

The expanded evacuation alert was made “out of an abundance of caution based on the advice of BC Wildfire due to increased fire activity and increased ember debris,” the City of Vernon tweeted.

Denver experienced the worst air quality of any major city in the world due to smoke from western wildfires – CNN

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