Opinion | Vin Gupta: 'We need to stop looking at wildfires in terms of houses destroyed and recovery dollars spent. They also cause irreversible health damage from air pollution.' - NBCNewsTHINK
The upshot is that if you are living in most major urban centers on the West Coast, you are frequently breathing in air that’s more polluted than it was only three years ago. During an intense wildfire, your ambient environment may be difficult to distinguish from notorious hubs of smog such as. Sure, you can wear a mask, get an indoor air filter, avoid going outside and hope for the best; as a pulmonologist, I’d recommend all these well-known reflexes for reducing exposure to air pollution.
As Smokey Bear has been telling us for decades, prevention is the most important way to fight wildfires and their health risks. We have policies to do so at the state and federal levels, we just need greater political will. The Environmental Defense Fundthat the federal government needs to spend more on forest maintenance, including removing dead trees and shrubs that serve as fuel.
Until now, though, federal support has mostly been in response to fire catastrophes, not in their prevention. For those concerned about the economic toll, keep in mind that ensuring the U.S. Forest Service has enough funding to perform these activitiesIf you are living in most major urban centers on the West Coast, you are frequently breathing in air that’s more polluted than it was only three years ago.
Education is also needed for local governments and homeowners alike. The Center for American Progress has noted that wildfire hazard mapping tools need to be publicly available and frequently updated to help secure new and retrofitted construction.
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