Until this week, the East Coast had remained cocooned, thousands of miles away from the walls of choking smoke that have become commonplace in Washington state, California, Oregon and British Columbia, but not anymore.
Fay Johnston, a public health physician and head of environmental health at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, says the smoke from Australia’s Black Summer ultimately killed more than 12 times the number of people taken by the blaze itself. Studies have linked bush fire smoke to a rise in premature births, lower birth weights, and heart and lung problems that can follow children for years.
“The thing about fire smoke is that it happens at scale,” she said. “It’s not one or two otherwise robust people affected. It’s entire communities, young people, elderly people, pregnant people, kids. That’s why it’s such a big public health problem.”The hundreds of Canadian wildfires burning will surely also leave their fingerprints on human health.
The economic impact lingers for years as well. Last June, an electrical thunderstorm started a fire in Zamora’s Sierra de la Culebra, in northwest Spain, ultimately scorching a third of the forested area along with farms, fields and bee colonies. Almost half of the burned area was a forest of pine and centennial chestnut trees, a tourist attraction and a sanctuary for the Iberian wolf, wild board and dozens of species of birds. The University of Salamanca put the economic damage at nearly $82 million.to demand compensation and action by the authorities to prevent future wildfires, “La Culebra no de Calla” .
On the West Coast, residents have accustomed themselves to shutting windows and doors, donning N95 masks and cranking up their air purifiers for weeks throughout the summer. As fires blaze around the world, others are learning to follow suit. There will be dark, “purple air” days when playgrounds sit empty and students learn online. There will be homemade air purifiers and eyes stinging with smoke.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Ex-Google safety lead calls for AI algorithm transparency, warns of ‘serious consequences for humanity’SmartNews safety lead Arjun Narayan stressed the importance of algorithm transparency and said human oversight is needed in AI-generated news and media.
Read more »
Caltech’s big energy breakthrough from outer spaceOpinion: Caltech’s big energy breakthrough from outer space
Read more »
Predawn shed fire forces evacuations, major street closure in east village -SAN DIEGO (CNS) – An explosive predawn fire engulfed a shed containing e-bikes, ammunition and dozens of lithium-ion batteries in the East Village today, forcing evacuations and the closure of a major freeway ingress into downtown San Diego. The non-injury blaze erupted shortly after 4:30 a.m. on F Street, just east of 16th Street, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue...
Read more »
Canadian wildfire smoke seen on East Coast has made its way to TexasThe orange images from the East Coast look unreal, with the wildfire smoke making the skyscrapers in New York City disappear. Some smoke from the same fires has reached North Texas, but there are other reasons our air quality is suffering.
Read more »
Update: Crews make major progress clearing abandoned cars from East Oakland neighborhoodJust a couple of weeks after KPIX reported on a problem neighborhood in East Oakland facing dozens of trashed vehicles being dumped there, there has been some remarkable improvement.
Read more »
Big Ten releases upcoming conference matchups; Ohio State won't play USC until 2025The Big Ten announced football matchups for the 2024 and '25 seasons. Ohio State won't play USC in '24 and won't play Penn State in '25.
Read more »