Smoke got you down, Boise? You’re not alone. Experts say wildfires are bad for our brains
Bradley Kindall paused from his work on the top floor of the Eighth & Main building on Thursday and took his phone out to capture the thick gray smoke shrouding the other high-rises downtown.
Kindall is no stranger to the smoke — he’s lived in Idaho for some 40 years, after all — but every summer when it inevitability moves in, so do the scratchy throats, headaches and sore eyes. At least with the Treasure Valley’s wintertime inversions, one can head up to Bogus Basin for some respite. Not with the smoke, he said.
“It’s painful and depressing,” Kindall told the Idaho Statesman by phone. “It makes you feel claustrophobic.”
Breathing in the tiny particles in wildfire smoke is hard on the respiratory system. But it’s also hard on our brains.
Jamie Derrick, a psychology professor at the University of Idaho, says a growing body of research shows short-term and long-term health impacts on people exposed to wildfire smoke, including anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“There’s also the existential piece of it,” Derrick told the Idaho Statesman by phone. “The smoke raises questions about climate change and the future of humanity, not to mention the loss of land, wildlife and ecosystems. It’s a multifaceted hit on our psychological systems.”
Disrupted sleep, altered moods
Derrick said wildfire smoke has been shown to disrupt our natural sleep cycles, too.
Dr. David Pate, the former CEO of St. Luke’s Health System, said that when smoke darkens the skies and forces us to shelter indoors, it also disrupts our circadian rhythms — physical, mental and behavioral changes that follow a 24-hour cycle.
Pate said the smoke can alter our moods. He knows that on a bright, sunny day with good air quality, he’s going to be a bit more cheerful.
“The first thing you notice when you go outside these last few weeks is that it’s not as bright as it normally is,” Pate told the Statesman by phone. “But more than that, it feels suffocating.”
Les Colin, senior forecaster for the National Weather Service in Boise, told the Statesman on Thursday not to expect relief anytime soon. Boise is slated to see varying amounts of smoke as long as long as nearby wildfires continue burning, which could be a while.
The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality on Friday extended its air quality advisory for Ada, Canyon and other nearby counties, forecasting “unhealthy” air quality through Saturday and “unhealthy for sensitive groups” air quality on Sunday and Monday.
Of course, you don’t need to head online to know the air quality in the Treasure Valley is poor.
What’s so great about Boise now?
Colby Spath, a 55-year-old former teacher who lives downtown, said the dense smoke curbs some of the best parts about living in Boise.
“All the things that make summer so great — like going camping, riding your bike on the Greenbelt or eating out on patios — I really don’t want to do any of those things right now,” Spath said by phone. “This weekend, I was taking care of my friend’s dogs and I was questioning whether I should even be walking them or not.”
Spath recently took a break from the smoke for a few days to visit some friends west of Seattle on the Olympic Peninsula. When he came back, it was “horrific,” he said. “I just thought, ‘What am I going back to?’”
Dr. Ethan Sims, an emergency room physician at St. Luke’s, video called the Statesman on Thursday from Redfish Lake in Stanley, Idaho. He was there with family to celebrate his parents’ 50th anniversary, but instead of their fond memories of the clear, reflective lake, he said the smoke was so bad they couldn’t even see the Sawtooth Mountains.
“No one is in the water, and everyone wanted to leave as soon as we got here,” Sims said. “Instead of having this joyful day that we’ve been looking forward to all week, we’re having ‘Oh my god, why did we drive up here? Can we go home?’”
Sims added that the smoke can cause “cascading mental health effects” on children. When it pours in, kids lose out on summer camp experiences, teenagers spend more time on social media, and outdoor sporting practices or games might get canceled.
More stress, less social support
Laura Treat, a behavioral health program manager at the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, said that when the smokes spurs people inside to seek better air quality, it can cause stress and isolation from social support and outdoor recreational activities that people might typically engage in.
The air pollutants affect our brains, she said, and children are at a much higher risk of exposure, since their brains are still developing.
Treat said people should try to maintain routines and find activities they enjoy to help cope with the stress. And, of course, avoid the smoke as much as possible.
Kindall, 43, has been trying to heed that advice. He said he likes to go fishing and geocaching, but that’s on pause for now. On weekdays, he often takes his electric scooter to grab lunch at the downtown Whole Foods. These days, he avoids it, lest he come back to his desk at Holland and Hart, a Boise law firm, smelling like a campfire.
He and his colleagues miss the clear view of the Foothills and the rest of the Valley, he added.
His family vacationed in Hawaii a week or so ago, and “landing back in Boise was depressing,” Kindall said. Ash had piled up on his truck.
“I’m happy the Olympics are going on right now, because at least that’s something to pay attention to,” he said.
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