Wildfires Don’t Discriminate — Except When They do

New York City is in the middle of an air-quality alert because of the massive wildfires out West and in Canada. Of course, what we’re experiencing here is nothing next to what those in the direct areas of the fires are feeling. But it’s not insignificant if you’re elderly, pregnant, have existing health issues, or are a child.

The air-quality index here in New York has been in the 110-150s out of 500 since yesterday. But out West, the numbers are nearly off the charts. For example, caught between two huge fires, the Methow Valley in eastern Washington State reached an air-quality index yesterday of 410. (I’ve been keeping an eye on that area because I have friends who live there.)

A number that high is considered so hazardous that everyone is more likely to be affected, no matter their age or general health. But an increase in particulate matter in the air at the levels we’re seeing in the Northeast is still likely to cause problems for sensitive groups — especially in a time in which so many people’s bodies are undergoing Covid-19.

The National Interagency Fire Center reports that wildfires are burning actively across 13 states, and have already destroyed 1,346,736 acres of land. And the nonprofit Center for Climate and Energy Solutions found that the number of large fires in the western United States doubled between 1984 and 2015.

As the number of such devastating fires in the U.S. and Canada continues to rise because of global warming — and its associated relentless heat waves and drought conditions — researchers are looking at their health effects on multiple groups, including pregnant women. They point to studies that have already shown that pregnant women are greatly affected by traffic-related air pollution: These women face an increased risk of autism spectrum disorder and developmental and respiratory problems in their children.

In 2018, researchers at the University of California, Davis, ran a study extrapolating that traffic research to wildfire-exposure in pregnant women.

“We thought, well this is that, amplified,” said Rebecca Schmidt, an environmental health professor who headed up the study.

But it’s not just pregnant women who are at greater risk of health problems during fires, but, as is usual in the climate crisis, the most vulnerable — including the elderly, children, and people of “poor socio-economic status” — are in more danger than the healthy and wealthy, whether from physical or mental health issues.

The terror of this kind of disaster can invoke trauma and PTSD.

“What little longitudinal research exists on fire survivors also suggests that emotional recovery occurs on the scale of years,” wrote Jane C. Hu in Outside magazine in December 2020.

Also, studies of the 2020 Australian bushfires found that domestic violence spiked in their aftermath. The stress and loss of control men feel can too often find their relief valves through violence toward their partners.

The mental health pressures we’ve been dealing with since Covid began are only being amplified across the country right now with these kinds of disasters. And even if we’re not in the line of fire, those of us lucky to be in states not directly in its terrifying path are being affected anyway.

“Smoke emissions can have wider impacts outside the immediate fire area,” writes the Environmental Protection Agency. “This societal burden is calculated in terms of incidence and cost of visits to emergency departments, hospital admissions, and loss of productivity, school absences, and other similar outcomes.”

Ultimately, just as with every consequence of climate change, we are all eventually hurt in the end.