Wildfires can harm your health, even if you're far away, experts say

The air quality deteriorated Tuesday evening in Pacific Palisades, as fast-moving fires raged in Southern California, creating conditions considered risky for children, older adults and people with lung or heart diseases.

The air quality index soared to 155, a level that Dr. Kari Nadeau, the head of the environmental health department at Harvard University, likened to smoking up to about 10 cigarettes a day. Depending on wind gusts, she said the air quality in some pockets of the evacuation zone could be much worse.

Wildfire smoke can cause adverse health effects 50 to 100 miles from the flames, in communities that cannot see or even smell the smoke. Nadeau urged people to keep a careful watch for coughing, dizziness, or chest pain, even five days after exposure to air pollution levels above 80 AQI.


Young children, particularly those age 4 and younger, are at particular risk, according to some studies, since their lungs are still developing. Prolonged exposure to smoke can increase a healthy child's risk of developing chronic asthma, and can increase an asthmatic child's risk of an attack.

Some children are so sensitive that an itchy throat or wheezing can indicate toxins that the Environmental Protection Agency's sensors have missed, Nadeau said. Their risk is heightened by the fact that "there's no N95 mask that's going to fit a baby," she said, so the only safe place for young people is indoors, with well-sealed windows and an air conditioning system with a filter rated higher than MERV 13.

Meanwhile, adults with diabetes or other chronic conditions might experience weakened glucose control, and elderly populations are likely to see a rise in heart attacks and strokes several days after exposure, since smoke can increase clotting.

Exposure to wildfire smoke is also associated with long-term consequences such as brain, lung and thyroid cancer.

Nadeau, who studies the toxicological effects of smoke in air pollution, said she is also concerned about the long-term effects of more than 400 different toxins, since wildfires often incinerate everything from paint thinners and detergents to furniture.

Those who show signs of respiratory distress, even hundreds of miles from the fires, should get help from a health care provider immediately.

"Unfortunately," she said, "there's no real safe distance from smoke."

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.