Smoke, air quality in Edmonton expected to yo-yo over coming weeks
Air quality in Edmonton and surrounding areas is expected to reach the highest risk level Wednesday night as the smoke from more than 100 wildfires burning in central British Columbia moves through Alberta.
Environment Canada is projecting the Air Quality Health Index will reach a maximum of 8 overnight before tapering off to 7 on Thursday.
But that won't be the end of the air quality roller coaster.
"It's going to be a temporary respite from this sort of pattern we're seeing," Brian Proctor, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, told CBC News Wednesday.
"As long as those fires are active in British Columbia — and they appear to be doing very little in the way of calming down from a weather condition point of view — we're going to see smoke," he said. "Sort of episodic events through central Alberta through much of the next few weeks."
August tends to be the most active time for forest fires in B.C., said Warren McCormick, an air quality specialist with the B.C. Ministry of Environment.
"Our forest fire season is just ramping up, and it could extend easily into the end of August and September," he said.
Deep into the lungs
Smoke from burning wood is made up of lots of small particles — particles smaller than pollen and dust — that get deep inside the lungs, Dr. Raj Bhardwaj told Edmonton AM Wednesday morning.
"So because those particles get deeper into the lungs, they can cause a lot more irritation and inflammation," Bhardwaj explained.
That results in the burning at the back of the throat and a dry cough, he said.
"It can also get into your eyes and give you the stingy eyes in the morning,"
Bhardwaj said people with chronic lung problems should stay indoors when the AQHI is high and people with heart problems also need to be aware.
"It's hard to move oxygen from your lungs into your blood when you have exposure to wood smoke like this, and of course that increases how hard your heart has to work. Your heart is the pump that helps us to do that."
