- [Narrator] During the summer, the air quality
in lots of big cities can get pretty bad.
But even in the last month, news sources have reported
that places like Denver, Indianapolis,
and New York have been exposed
to higher than normal air pollution.
For a few hours on August 7th, 2021,
Denver's air quality was the worst in the world,
well above the particulate matter exposure levels
recommended by the World Health Organization.
- Colorado has struggled with air quality
throughout the summer.
Recently, our air quality issues have been compounded
by the wildfire smoke.
- [Narrator] Wildfire smoke from western states managed
to make its way across the country,
affecting cities like Indianapolis and New York.
- The fires in California,
the fires that have been going on in Idaho and Montana,
and Oregon, all of that smoke has
also come through Colorado.
A very common thing that happens in Colorado is
the smoke comes in from the north
and then comes down on the east side of the Rockies.
It was a particularly thick blanket of smoke
and the visibility dropped to
below three miles, pretty much.
- [Narrator] But if you lived in Denver
and weren't watching the news, you might not realize
the thick haze actually contained smoke.
- You typically can't smell the smoke from fires
that are more than a day upwind
because the compounds that are in smoke that have a smell,
they degrade within one day in the atmosphere.
- [Narrator] But that doesn't mean it's okay
to breathe it in.
- Wildfire smoke is composed of thousands
of different things.
There's what we call particulate matter
and then there's gases in the smoke.
One of the major constituents is carbon monoxide.
There's also hazardous air pollutants, things like benzene,
toluene, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide,
those are all enhanced when wildfire smoke comes to town.
- [Narrator] Smoke from wildfires isn't the only thing
to blame for bad air quality.
Other sources of air pollution are things like cars,
power plants, and even wood-burning fireplaces.
These in turn can contribute to VOCs,
or volatile organic compounds.
These are gases that are emitted
from certain solids or liquids.
They can lead to another dangerous pollutant: ozone.
- Ozone is a secondary pollutant
so it's not admitted directly.
It's formed in the atmosphere when nitrogen oxides react
in the presence of VOCs.
We have a lot of oil and gas development
so that's a large source of VOCs.
Major sources of nitrogen oxides include vehicles,
transportation, power generation, so there's certainly
plenty of human pollution sources to cause
the ozone problem that we have,
and that's routine in summer.
- [Narrator] Ozone formation
in the upper atmosphere is good.
It protects living things from much
of the sun's harmful, ultraviolet radiation,
but ground level ozone can get in your lungs
and cause the muscles in your airways to constrict
and trap air in the alveoli.
This can lead to health effects like coughing
or difficulty taking deep breaths.
Sunlight drives the production of ozone
from VOCs and hot temperatures speed that up,
so summer generally means more ozone.
And an abundance of ozone means worse air quality,
even without wildfire smoke.
- The wildfires that we're seeing now absolutely have
a climate component to them.
And we really can't solve the wildfire challenges, you know,
fully without addressing climate change.
Absolutely, climate change will exacerbate
air pollution issues.
No doubt about it.
- [Narrator] Whether the pollutants are from car exhaust,
ozone production, or the particles from wildfire smoke,
they can all make their way into your lungs.
- If you're breathing in poor air quality
the symptoms that you can feel might include
cough, shortness of breath, fatigue,
and just generally not feeling the greatest
when you take that deep breath.
Air pollution cause a lot of problems to our body.
People who are surrounded by air pollution
and grow up in areas where air pollution is heavy,
they're going to develop symptoms of asthma,
symptoms of emphysema, and that's an issue.
- [Narrator] To complicate things, air quality disparities
often aligned with socioeconomic disparities.
- So let's just think about for a minute,
where is it cheapest to live?
It's cheapest to live in areas that are next to freeways.
You're gonna have more pollution
which leads to significant particulate matter
and other particles within the air that are gonna lead
to inflammation within your lung.
And so people who are, don't have enough
or who don't have the ability to afford to live
in other areas, they're also going to be the people
that are most diseased.
Those neighborhoods have a high prevalence of asthma,
especially childhood asthma.
- [Narrator] So if the air quality around you is bad,
what can you do to stay safe?
- If you have the privilege of not having
to go outside that day, stay indoors.
Close your windows.
Make sure that the air circulating
in your house remains healthy.
If you're going to be outside, make it a quick visit.
Wear a mask, it's a physical barrier so you don't get
as abundant an amount of these molecules
that's gonna lead to some of the inflammation
and some of the healthcare effects
that can be seen as very bad.
I think the most important thing is to be able
to develop a relationship with local health care entities
to make certain that you're well taken care of,
or at least your illnesses are managed.
- I think one message that's really important
to get across is that people should be checking
their air quality daily like they're checking the weather
and making personal choices based
on the air that they're breathing.
People should be concerned about this
because there are real health impacts
and quality of life impacts.
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