Although today's air quality in Squamish is considered low risk despite wildfire smoke, it has fluctuated throughout the week.
The town’s air quality readings are taken from a monitoring station located at Squamish Elementary School.
During some of the worst smoke, on Tuesday morning, folks in town were still seen running, riding their bikes and pushing their kids in strollers.
What should we do when there's wildfire smoke?
Luisa Giles, assistant professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences and Kinesiology at the University of the Fraser Valley, is an air quality and health researcher who also used to live in Squamish and still owns a home here.
The Squamish Chief reached her by phone to ask about how our exercise-loving community should handle life with wildfire smoke.
What follows is a version of that conversation edited for length and clarity.
Q: What is your perspective, from the research, on folks exercising outside when there is wildfire smoke?
A: It depends on where they are and what the concentrations of air pollution are.
The first thing I always ask myself is, can I move this activity indoors? And if I'm moving it indoors, is it a clean air space? If you go to some of the gyms where the doors open, it might just be the same as being outside.
Some people need to move outside for their mental well-being. Some of the research that I did found, actually, that it was actually important for some people to move outside. The movement outside was related to the impacts on mental well-being. So my question to those people would be, OK, if you decide for your well-being, you need to move outside, can you wear a mask?
I think of a mask as a seat belt. Like, why wouldn't you? You can get them from the hardware store, not the annoying surgical masks that collapse into your mouth and your nose when you try and breathe. You can get ones that have a little structure—that don't collapse.
Ideally, everybody would find somewhere indoors that's clean and be able to do their activity there, but not everybody can afford that. Not everybody has access to gyms in Squamish.
If you want to work out and you can't do it indoors, and you can't postpone it, then I would encourage people to look at firesmoke.ca. It's a really good mapping tool that can at least give you some indication about where they think the smoke is going to blow. You [can] use that to plan if you have to exercise outdoors.
Q: Can you review your research in terms of how people are impacted mentally and physically by wildfire smoke?
A: Let me give you a bit of a lay of the land of research that's not mine, and then I can highlight some of my stuff.
What we do know is that in the short term, over days, exposure to wildfire smoke can make respiratory symptoms worse. No surprise, right? It can also cause things like a sore throat, eye irritation, runny nose, coughing, wheezing, phlegm production and headaches. In some people, like those with pre-existing conditions, it might cause difficulty breathing, chest pain, dizziness, heart palpitations, and it might impair lung function as well. In the short term, it might also increase the number of people who are going to the hospital or being admitted to hospital because of respiratory-related reasons. There's also some data on how it impacts the heart and the blood vessels. That is emerging and mixed research, but there is some data to suggest that it could increase the risk of stroke and heart attack, because air pollution can have an impact on the cardiovascular system.
It can increase the risk of premature death. It also probably increases medication dispensation. You know, if you have asthma, you're probably going to go and get your medication dispensed more frequently, and then there's increased physician visits as well. There is some emerging research that it can impact cognition.
In terms of my research, what we looked at was, what are the impacts of wildfire smoke on physical activity and mental well-being, and how changes in physical activity are related to changes in mental well-being. What we found is that when it was smoky out, people were less physically active. They have more symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression, and the change in physical activity is related to the changes in symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression. And we even found that for a lot of people, it was exercising in green space and physical activity that mediated the effects of smoke on mental well-being. So that tells me that people need to move a lot, and some people need to move outside to help maintain their mental well-being when it's smoky.
Q: What else would you like to say?
A: I think the thing people don't think about is that the smoke is 24 hours a day, right? Think about your exposure over the course of the day. How can you mitigate that? Can you run a portable HEPA filter inside?
If you're commuting and the air quality gets really bad through Squamish and down into the city because of this fire, I'd probably wear a mask in my car.
Also, I would say consult the BC air quality health index; that's a good option to help guide you. I also think there's the potential for local solutions. If it is smoky out, could the District provide free or low-cost access to either N95 masks or indoor exercise air spaces that have clean air? And could the municipality buy some of these low-cost air pollution sensors to give them feedback on whether their indoor spaces are clean? And if they're not, could they put a HEPA filter in there?
And I am keeping my fingers crossed that the rain comes soon.
