Intermountain Health Experts Bring Awareness During Poor Air Quality from Wildfire Smoke

As the air quality across the Intermountain West has been impacted from wildfire smoke coming from, Intermountain Health medical experts are diligently working to inform vulnerable community members of potential health impacts.

This involves preventative measures aimed at keeping people safe and healthy, especially those with compromised respiratory and heart conditions.

“Wildfire smoke not only affects adults with lung, heart or kidney conditions, but can affect young children with lower respiratory reserves,” said Suresh Tawney, MD, pulmonologist with Intermountain’s Las Vegas Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Clinic. “Also, smoke particles can affect the health of people with no underlying medical issues.”

Several preventative measures Dr. Tawney has been educating patients are as follows:

• Stay indoors
• Keep windows and doors shut tight
• Change home air filters
• If needing to go outside, consider wearing a N95 mask to keep the smoke particles out of airways

Dr. Tawney highlighted the study results from California Davis School of Medicine where research from the 2020 California wildfire season found that wildfire smoke can activate abnormal immune cells in the blood and promote inflammation.

People who have compromised respiratory issues, such as asthma and COPD, are being encouraged to stay indoors when the air quality is diminished. Those with these issues can find that wildfire smoke increases difficulties in breathing and respiratory symptoms – including coughing, wheezing, and chest tightness.

Wildfire smoke pollution also greatly affects people living with other health conditions, such as cardiovascular and kidney problems.

“In patients with cardiovascular disease, they can experience a greater incidence of heart-related stroke events, worsening heart failure and arrhythmias,” Dr. Tawney said. “Patients with chronic kidney disease, particularly dialysis patients, exposure to wildfire smoke can result in increased problems as well as increasing fatality risks.”

Researchers with Intermountain Health studied more than 22,000 heart patients and compared hospital visits for heart attack and unstable chest pain during spikes in PM2.5 pollution due to summertime wildfire smoke versus rising levels of PM2.5 during winter inversions.

Results found that patients experiencing unstable chest pain during the summertime, same-day risk of hospitalization was about 45 percent higher for each person in the population on each day they were exposed to an orange-level air quality index for PM2.5, compared to an air quality index at the green level during the summertime.

Wildfire smoke usually contains particulate matter of varying sizes, usually classified as PM 10 microns & PM 2.5 microns, Ozone, nitrogen containing toxic gases.

“The size of the particulate matter is important. Particles larger than 10 microns are deposited in the nose, mouth & airways. PM 2.5 or smaller is sucked directly down in the lungs,” Dr. Tawney explained.

In the USA, wildfire smoke containing PM less than 2.5 microns is associated with an estimated 6,300 deaths and between 1,300 & 6,000 ER visits per year.

The Clark County Division of Air Quality in Nevada issued an “Air Quality Alert” on Wednesday, September 11 that is currently still active. Many other areas across the Intermountain West are on similar alert. Residents of Nevada can the find the up-to-date Air Quality Index, or AQI, at the Clark County monitoring website.

The AQl is an assessment of air quality based upon five pollutants: PM, ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxide and nitrogen oxide. The Index is separated into six color categories beginning with the safest area of green, yellow, orange, red, purple, and maroon being the most extreme. Orange alert days, when the AQI is when the air quality is now unsafe, is when precautions must be taken.

The main takeaway for the public is to use preventative measures, stay indoors, make sure air filters are changed out, and keep track of the air quality index to keep you and your loved ones safe.

You can learn more about COPD, asthma, and the other related health conditions and more at intermountainhealth.org.

About Intermountain Health

Headquartered in Utah with locations in six states and additional operations across the western U.S., Intermountain Health is a nonprofit system of 34 hospitals, 400 clinics, medical groups with some 4,600 employed physicians and advanced care providers, a health plans division called Select Health with more than one million members, and other health services. Helping people live the healthiest lives possible, Intermountain is committed to improving community health and is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes at sustainable costs. For more information or updates, see https://intermountainhealthcare.org/news.