Gabriola Island Clean Air Society

For those who experienced a Summer exposed to wood smoke from forest fires, the thought of yet another Fall, Winter, and Spring filled with locally-produced wood smoke from fireplaces and wood stoves is a horrifying one. Many are now exposed to particulate pollution for virtually 12 months of the year, and in rural and semi-rural communities these exposures are usually higher and almost never recorded by local, regional, or national governments. Our PurpleAir network shows the impacts of larger scale fire events as well as hyper-local impacts associated with residential wood burning practices. The pattern of smoke generated is clear and easy to interpret. Below is ambient air pollution from forest fires over the past week. This PurpleAir sensor is located in the Kamloops region. This pattern of smoke has a roller coaster appearance, and in this case PM2.5 reached around 165 on the US EPA AQI scale. Below is a screen capture from our network showing a range of readings from ...

Forest fire activity in the Province of British Columbia and elsewhere during the Summer of 2018 has once again raised concerns about air quality and human health impacts. Although the Summer of 2017 had longer and more intense wood smoke pollution events in communities like Kamloops then this year, this Summer has seen larger spikes in pollution. For a comparison of the two summers and for a discussion on the implications of multiple years of smoke exposure, click here . On August 23, 2018, smoke in the City of Kamloops returned with a vengeance. The provincial air monitoring station at the Federal Building in downtown Kamloops recorded a one hour average for PM2.5 of 231.1 micrograms/m3 at 10PM. Our PurpleAir network showed almost exactly the same levels across the "swarm" of low-cost sensors setup in the city. To learn more about how this technology compares to expensive government monitoring stations, click here . Additional examples comparing the network to sa...

Just as quickly as the air pollution tanked into the hazarous zone this past week, it has rebounded over the past few hours. Here's an example from our network of PurpleAir sensors on Gabriola Island of this rapid improvement, and escape (perhaps temporarily) from the forest fire woodsmoke blanketing much of the province. Is the air quality on Gabriola Island good right now? It depends on where you are. Note the air pollution stratification with parallel poor readings on Vancouver Island. This is only a difference of around 5km (North to South).

While much of BC is blanketed with wood smoke from forest fires raging across the province and elsewhere, there are some parts of the province that have been hit with bad air pollution more than others. This is due in part to terrain, proximity to forest fires, and other factors. Although our network of PurpleAir sensors is rapidly expanding across the province, the highest concentration is currently in the Kamloops area. Kamloops has had two back-to-back bad summers with smoke affecting the community. How does the Summer of 2017 compare to this Summer? Below are graphs from two of our many PurpleAir sensors in Kamloops dating from July 1, 2017 to August 22, 2018. We have selected one sensor at an intermediate elevation in the city (Hugh Allan Drive) and one at a lower elevation (Moody Ave) to show you some trends. The data is based on 24-hour averages, and it's worth noting that the provincial 24-hour average target for PM2.5 is 25 micrograms/m3. We believe that this t...

In the August 15, 2018 issue of Kamloops Info News , it was suggested that exposure to PM2.5 from forest fires isn't a big deal and that the kind of air pollution generated by it is somehow less dangerous than exposure to smog found in larger cities. Although the amount of fine particulates currently in the air is comparable to large metropolitan cities with air quality problems, Ayache says the fine particulates in the Kamloops and the Okanagan are largely a result of the forest fires and don't contain a multitude of toxins you would find in a smog filled city. ( B.C. Ministry of Environment air quality meteorologist Tarek Ayache). This is complete and utter nonsense. PM2.5 from combustion of biomass (forest fires, wood stoves, biomass-based energy systems etc) contains hundreds of toxic chemicals that are bound to the surface of particulates. Many of these are highly carcinogenic and create acute responses including heart attacks and strokes. They have also been found to ...

The low-cost PurpleAir network acts like a "swarm" to provide more detailed data - at various locations - on air quality. The strength of this approach is to use all sensors in a region to understand more fully how air quality varies by elevation, proximity to a pollution source, and other factors. It's also very helpful to have multiple readings from independent devices. Here's another example of how the technology compares to the provincial air quality monitoring program. This example is a snapshot of several days of averaged data which compares the provincial monitor in Kamloops to the closest PurpleAir sensor. Note how the trend lines track each other.

People sometimes take a laid-back approach to air pollution and often underestimate how both short term and long term exposures add up to health risks that can be serious. Heart attacks and strokes are much more common during high pollution days (and immediately afterwards), and particulate matter at the 2.5 micron scale (PM2.5) can accumulate in our blood stream and move into various organ systems causing damage from oxidative stress, inflammation, and other processes. With forest fires and ambient air pollution generated from non-point sources, there's sometimes a perception that nothing can be done to minimize exposure and that we should just get on with things. We sometimes hear comments like, "There's nothing we can do about it." The most important and successful way to reduce exposure to forest fire smoke is to stay indoors as much as possible, close windows, and to use air purifiers with HEPA 5-stage filtration. Here is some data from today on the ef...