Orange you glad?
The Canadian wildfire smoke that covered the NYC skyline with a toxic amber glow in June was no worse for your lungs than a bad pollen day, researchers at NYU Langone found.
“Thankfully, the respiratory effects of the wildfire smoke in June were not much worse than what had been seen on really bad pollen days back in the spring, and despite what many New Yorkers may have feared on seeing hazy, orange air,” Wuyue Yu, one of the study’s co-authors, said in a press release.
Many took to social media to describe the apocalyptic feel of being surrounded by the burnt orange smog that obscured the Big Apple’s iconic skyline for several hours on June 7 — with some hitting the streets in N-95 masks as if it were the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the new research suggests that New Yorkers may have been overly cautious — as the study found that air quality was half as bad on June 7 as a high pollen count day, according to a measure of particulate matter in the air known to scientists as PM 2.5.
The PM 2.5 on June 7 only measured 146 micrograms per cubic meter, whereas on April 26 — a recent high-pollen-count day — the particulate matter measured 302, the report, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, found.
Asthma-related NYC emergency room visits did see an uptick during the orange haze over a normal day, spiking to 335 patients compared to a typical 188, according to researchers.
They did not say how many people sought treatment on a high pollen day.
Senior study investigator, George D. Thurston, said in a press release that “while inhaling any particle-filled air is not good for your lungs, we do know that wildfire smoke is primarily made up of organic matter.”
“As a result, it is not enriched in the toxic metals that are found in fossil-fuel emissions, which are known to cause damaging oxidative stress in the body,” he said.
The study, however, did not investigate other health effects, such as heart attacks and strokes.
At the time, New Yorkers with breathing problems were advised to stay indoors and all outdoors activities were canceled, as more than 400 fires burned up north.
The blazes were being exacerbated by “extremely dry” conditions and warm temperatures, and smoke and haze from fires as far away as British Columbia and Nova Scotia had been blown into the city.
