KLAMATH COUNTY ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH DIVISION PRE-WILFIRE SEASON DAILY UPDATE/FORECAST FOR AIR QUALITY

 

The Air Quality outlook for today Thursday MAY 19, 2016, from 8:00 am until 8:00 am Tuesday MAY 24, 2016 is forecasted to be “Good”, meaning good air quality.

Prepare Your Home

·         Regularly clean the roof and gutters.

·         Maintain an area approximately 30’ away from you home that is free of anything that will burn, such as wood piles, dried leaves, newspapers and other brush.

·         Connect garden hoses long enough to reach any area of the home and fill garbage cans, tubs, or other large containers with water.

·         Review your homeowner's insurance policy and also prepare/update a list of your home's contents

KLAMATH COUNTY ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH DIVISION PRE-WILFIRE SEASON DAILY UPDATE/FORECAST FOR AIR QUALITY

 

The Air Quality outlook for today Friday MAY 13, 2016, from 8:00 am until 8:00 am Tuesday MAY 17, 2016 is forecasted to be “Good”, meaning good air quality; however some people may be unusually sensitive to particle pollution and may need to take precautions if the air quality reaches moderate levels. Today the Northern Klamath County areas (Chiloquin, Crescent, Chemult and Gilchrist) may experience moderate to unhealthy Air Quality due to the low mixing heights in the morning trapping in the smoke from the prescribed burns from the north. Late this morning the mixing heights will improve which will bring good conditions up north and will allow the smoke to leave those areas. The same northern Klamath Cities can expect more smoke late tonight and on into the early morning hours through the weekend due to the low mixing heights late in the evening and early in the morning.

KLAMATH COUNTY ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH DIVISION PRE-WILFIRE SEASON DAILY UPDATE/FORECAST FOR AIR QUALITY

 

The Air Quality outlook for today Thursday MAY 12, 2016, from 8:00 am until 8:00 am Friday  MAY 13, 2016 is forecasted to be “Good to Low Moderate””, meaning good air quality, however some people may be unusually sensitive to particle pollution and may need to take precautions if the air quality reaches moderate levels. TODAY THE NORTHERN KLAMATH COUNTY AREAS (CHILOQUIN, CREScENT, CHEMULT AND GILChRIST) MAY EXPERIENCE MODERATE TO UNHEALTHY AIR QUALITY DUE TO THE LOW MIXING HEIGHTS IN THE MORNING TRAPPING IN THE SMOKE FROM THE PRESCRIBED BURNS FROM THE NORTH. LATE THIS MORNING THE MIXING HEIGHTS WILL IMPROVE, WHICH WILL BRING GOOD CONDITIONS UP NORTH AND WILL ALLOW THE SMOKE TO LEAVE THOSE AREAS. THE SAME NORTHERN KLAMATH CITY’S CAN EXPECT MORE SMOKE LATE TONIGHT AND ON INTO THE EARLY MORNING HOURS DUE TO THE LOW MIXING HEIGHTS SETTING IN THIS EVENING.

 

April 27, 2016

Study: Even a Little Air Pollution May Have Long-Term Health Effects on Developing Fetus

Researchers find biological evidence linking air pollution to intrauterine inflammation, a condition associated with adverse pregnancy and child outcomes.

Even small amounts of air pollution appear to raise the risk of a condition in pregnant women linked to premature births and lifelong neurological and respiratory disorders in their children, new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests.

Fine particles from car exhaust, power plants and other industrial sources are breathed into the lungs, but the scientists have now found evidence of the effects of that pollution in pregnant women’s placentas, the organ that connects a mother to her fetus and provides blood, oxygen and nutrition. They found that the greater the maternal exposure to air pollution, the more likely the pregnant women suffered from a condition called intrauterine inflammation, which can increase the risk of a number of health problems for her child from the fetal stage well into childhood.

The researchers, reporting online April 27 in Environmental Health Perspectives, say the findings add to the growing evidence that the air a pregnant woman breathes could have long-term health consequences for her child and that current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air pollution standards may not be stringent enough to protect her developing fetus.

“Twenty years ago, we showed that high levels of air pollution led to poor pregnancy outcomes, including premature births. Now we are showing that even small amounts of air pollution appear to have biological effects at the cellular level in pregnant women,” says the study’s senior author, Xiaobin Wang, MD, ScD, MPH, the Zanvyl Krieger Professor and director of the Center on the Early Life Origins of Disease at the Bloomberg School.

Says the study’s lead author Rebecca Massa Nachman, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the Bloomberg School: “This study raises the concern that even current standards for air pollution may not be strict enough to protect the fetus, which may be particularly sensitive to environmental factors. We found biological effects in women exposed to air pollution levels below the EPA standard.”

For the study, researchers analyzed data from 5,059 mother-child pairs in the Boston Birth Cohort, a predominantly low-income minority population. They assessed the presence of intrauterine inflammation based on whether the mother had a fever during labor and by looking under a microscope at the placenta, which was collected and preserved after birth. They assessed maternal exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution using data from EPA air quality stations located near the mothers’ homes. Boston, where the women lived, is known as a relatively clean city when it comes to air pollution. The majority of the women in the study were exposed to air pollution at a level that EPA deems acceptable, fewer than 12 micrograms per cubic meter. A subset of 1,588 women (or 31 percent) were exposed to air pollution at or above the EPA standard.

The researchers found that pregnant women who were exposed to the highest levels of air pollution were nearly twice as likely as those exposed to the lowest levels to have intrauterine inflammation and it appeared that the first trimester might be a time of highest risk. These results held up even when researchers accounted for factors including smoking, age, obesity and education levels.

Intrauterine inflammation is one of the leading causes of premature birth, which occurs in one of every nine births in the United States and one in six African-American births, the researchers say. Babies born prematurely can have lifelong developmental problems. Researchers have linked preterm birth to both autism and asthma.

While maternal exposure to air pollution during pregnancy is associated with adverse birth outcomes, the biological mechanism has not been well understood. There are few outward signs of intrauterine inflammation in most women. But the researchers say that the placenta – which is typically discarded after birth – offered vital clues to the condition and could be the source of other important health information.

 “The placenta may be a window into what is going on in terms of early life exposure and what it means for future health problems,” Wang says. “This organ is discarded, but testing it is non-invasive and could be a valuable source of all kinds of environmental information.”

“Intrauterine Inflammation and Maternal Exposure to Ambient PM2.5 during Preconception and Specific Periods of Pregnancy: The Boston Birth Cohort” was written by Rebecca Massa Nachman, Guangyun Mao, Xingyou Zhang, Xiumei Hong, Zhu Chen, Claire Sampankanpanich Soria, Huan He, Guoying Wang, Deanna Caruso, Colleen Pearson, Shyam Biswal, Barry Zuckerman, Marsha Wills-Karp and Xiaobin Wang.

The Boston Birth Cohort is supported in part by the March of Dimes PERI grants, and the National Institutes of Health’s National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R21 ES011666 and T32ES007141) and Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01 HD041702 and R21HD066471). Other philanthropic support comes from The Ludwig Family Foundation and the Zanvyl Krieger Endowment. 

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Media contacts for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: Stephanie Desmon at 410-955-7619 or sdesmon1@jhu.edu and Barbara Benham at 410-614-6029 or bbenham1@jhu.edu

Friday: You’re doing a lot of things to keep your heart healthy. You eat right. You exercise. You don’t smoke. Are you paying attention to air quality? If not, today’s the day to start.

1.       What can you do? Do everything you’re supposed to for good heart health. And pay attention to the Air Quality Index (AQI) – especially if have heart disease, or if you’re at greater risk of a heart attack (including men over 45 and women over 55).

2.       Don’t wait for symptoms to tell you if particles are affecting you: your first symptom could be a heart attack

How Particle Pollution Can Affect Your Health

Particle pollution exposure can lead to a variety of health effects. For example, numerous studies link particle levels to increased hospital admissions and emergency room visits—and even to early death. Research indicates that obesity or diabetes may increase risk.  New or expectant mothers may also want to take precautions to protect the health of their babies, because some studies indicate they may be at increased risk.

Both long- and short-term particle exposures have been linked to health  Long-term exposures, such as those experienced by people living for many years in areas with high particle levels, have been associated with problems such as reduced lung function and the development of chronic bronchitis—and even premature death. 

Some studies also suggest that long-term PM 2.5 exposures may be linked to cancer and to harmful developmental and reproductive effects, such as infant mortality and low birth weight.

Short-term exposures to particles (hours or days) can aggravate lung disease, causing asthma attacks and acute bronchitis, and may also increase susceptibility to respiratory infections.

It's important to limit your exposure to smoke—especially if you are more susceptible than others:

·    If you have heart or lung disease, such as congestive heart failure, angina, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema or asthma, you may experience health effects earlier and at lower smoke levels than healthy people.

·    Older adults are more likely to be affected by smoke, possibly because they are more likely to have chronic heart or lung diseases than younger people.

·    Children also are more susceptible to smoke for several reasons: their respiratory systems are still developing; they breathe more air (and air pollution) per pound of body weight than adults; and they're more likely to be active outdoors.

Protect Yourself!

To help protect your health and the health of loved ones, make sure to follow these best burn tips when heating with wood:

·    Burn dry, seasoned wood that has been split, stacked, covered and stored.

·    Test wood with a moisture meter (20 percent moisture or less is best).

·    Use a cleaner-burning gas or wood stove.

For additional information on the health effects of wood smoke, visit the AirNow Web site

Also, the state of Washington's Department of Ecology has published a useful booklet entitled, Health Effects of Wood Smoke (PDF)  (15pp, 206k, About PDF)

EPA Burn Wise Health and Safety Awareness Kit provides health and safety outreach materials to help reduce residential wood smoke pollution. To promote best burn tips, we’ve developed web-ready infographics, social media messages, fast facts, an article template and other tools. 

To learn more about asthma, visit www.epa.gov/asthma, www.noattacks.org or www.cdc.gov/asthma.

Air pollution can make asthma

symptoms worse and trigger attacks.

If you or your child has asthma, have you

ever noticed symptoms get worse when

the air is polluted? Air pollution can make

it harder to breathe. It can also cause other

symptoms, like coughing, wheezing, chest

discomfort, and a burning feeling in the

lungs.

Two key air pollutants can affect asthma.

One is ozone (found in smog). The other is

particle pollution (found in haze, smoke, and

dust). When ozone and particle pollution

are in the air, adults and children with

asthma are more likely to have symptoms.

You can take steps to help protect

your health from air pollution.

_ Get to know how sensitive you are to air

pollution.

• Notice your asthma symptoms when you

are physically active. Do they happen

more often when the air is more polluted?

If so, you may be sensitive to air pollution.

• Also notice any asthma symptoms that

begin up to a day after you have been

outdoors in polluted air. Air pollution

can make you more sensitive to asthma

triggers, like mold and dust mites. If

you are more sensitive than usual to

indoor asthma triggers, it could be

due to air pollution outdoors.

_ Know when and where air pollution may

be bad.

• Ozone is often worst on hot summer

days, especially in the afternoons and

early evenings.

• Particle pollution can be bad any

time of year, even in winter. It can be

especially bad when the weather is calm,

allowing air pollution to build up.

Particle levels can also be high:

— Near busy roads, during rush hour,

and around factories.

— When there is smoke in the air from

wood stoves, fireplaces, or burning

vegetation.

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ASTHMA AND OUTDOOR AIR POLLUTION

_ Plan activities when and where pollution

levels are lower. Regular exercise is

important for staying healthy, especially

for people with asthma. By adjusting when

and where you exercise, you can lead a

healthy lifestyle and help reduce your

asthma symptoms when the air is polluted.

In summer, plan your most vigorous

activities for the morning. Try to exercise

away from busy roads or industrial areas.

On hot, smoggy days when ozone levels

are high, think about exercising indoors.

_ Change your activity level. When the air

is polluted, try to take it easier if you are

active outdoors. This will reduce how

much pollution you breathe. Even if you

can’t change your schedule, you might be

able to change your activity so it is less

intense. For example, go for a walk

instead of a jog. Or, spend less time

on the activity. For example, jog for

20 minutes instead of 30.

_ Listen to your body. If you get asthma

symptoms when the air is polluted, stop your

activity. Find another, less intense activity.

_ Keep your quick-relief medicine on hand

when you’re active outdoors. That way,

if you do have symptoms, you’ll be

prepared. This is especially important

if you’re starting a new activity that is

more intense than you are used to.

_ Consult your health care provider. If you

have asthma symptoms when the air is

polluted, talk with your health care

provider.

• If you will be exercising more than

usual, discuss this with your health care

provider. Ask whether you should use

medicine before you start outdoor

activities.

• If you have symptoms during a certain

type of activity, ask your health care

provider if you should follow an asthma

action plan.

Get up-to-date information about

your local air quality:

Sometimes you can tell that the air is

polluted—for example, on a smoggy or

hazy day. But often you can’t. In many

areas, you can find air quality forecasts

and reports on local TV or radio. These

reports use the Air Quality Index, or AQI,

a simple color scale, to tell you how

clean or polluted the air is. You can also

find these reports on the Internet at:

www.epa.gov/airnow. You can use the AQI

to plan your activities each day to help

reduce your asthma symptoms.

For more information:

Air quality and health:

• EPA’s AIRNow website at

www.epa.gov/airnow

• Call 1-800-490-9198 to request free EPA

brochures on: Ozone and Your Health,

Particle Pollution and Your Health, and Air

Quality Index: A Guide to Air Quality and

Your Health.

Asthma:

• Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention (CDC) Web site at

www.cdc.gov/asthma

Indoor air and asthma:

• EPA’s asthma website at

www.epa.gov/asthma

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EPA-452-F-04-002