By Karen Kier
Pharmacist on behalf of the ONU HealthWise team
In 1975, Michael Martin Murphey released the song Wildfire after recording at the Ray Stevens Sound Lab in Nashville, Tennessee. Murphey wrote the song about a horse named Wildfire when he was a junior at UCLA based on a dream he had the night before. In an interview about the song, he believed the inspiration came from a story his grandfather would tell him about a Native American legend of a ghost horse. The song hit number one on the US Billboard Top 100 Easy Listening songs.
The song was actually over 7 minutes in length with a piano intro and outro, which was edited out for the version on the radio. Doris Day covered the song on her 1986 CBS television series The Doris Day Show. In an episode of The Simpsons, Lisa plays the song on her saxophone for her pony. In 2007, David Letterman developed a fascination for the song and this eventually led to Michael Martin Murphey appearing on the Late Show to perform the song.
Many of us have seen the haze of the current wildfires in our area as well as the poor air quality indexes being reported by the news. The smoke and pollution from the wildfires can have significant health concerns beyond lung issues.
The 2023 wildfires in Canada have burnt over 10.6 million acres and this is 15 times more than the annual average acreage lost to fire over the past decade. The smoke from these fires can be thought of as the ghost horse from the song Wildfire galloping towards our air and impacting our health.
Studies have evaluated the health risks associated with wildfires over the past few decades. A large-scale study was published in the American Journal of Public Health on June 7, 2023 evaluating the effect of wildfire smoke on US communities between 2011 and 2021. Wildfire exposures have increased substantially since 2011. In the 1990s about 3.3 million acres burned each year compared to 7.1 million acres in 2021. The Canadian wildfires have already exceeded this amount.
The smoke from the wildfires change air quality by increasing the concentration of particulate matter (pollution), ozone, hydrocarbons and volatile organic compounds. The smoke and the particulate matter can travel thousands of miles from the fire sites. Factors such as heat, drought, and wind speed can impact how far the smoke travels.
Some of the more obvious effects of smoke exposure would include respiratory illnesses such as worsening asthma or chronic pulmonary disease (COPD). It can increase the risk of heart disease including heart attacks, strokes and worsening heart failure.
A presentation at the 2022 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology meeting discussed the impact of the Monterey, Mexico wildfires on upper airway symptoms. The local hospital had a pollen meter, which detected significant amounts of ash in the air. When evaluating emergency room visits for respiratory problems, they reported 64% of patients had allergic rhinitis (swollen nasal passages and runny nose) and 36% had allergic rhinitis and asthma combined. In a November 2022 study published in Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, the researchers demonstrated a 5% reduction in lung and breathing capacity in children exposed to smoke from bushfires in Australia.
Another study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open evaluated adults over the age of 65 years exposed to smoke from the California Camp fires. The study reported a substantial increase in those reporting skin abnormalities. The smoke exposure increased the rate of atopic dermatitis or eczema with symptoms of dry, itchy, inflamed skin.
Another study presented at The Pregnancy Meeting in February of 2023 reported an increased risk of preterm birth in women exposed to the California wildfires. The study identified women exposed to the wildfire smoke delivered an average of 7.5 days sooner than those who had not been exposed. The exposure was not just while the women were pregnant, but rather included exposure 4 weeks before getting pregnant. The most critical time frame identified in the study was 4 weeks before and up to 20 weeks after becoming pregnant.
In addition to birthing outcomes, another study presented in October of 2022 evaluated the impact of the Oregon wildfires on in vitro fertilization (IVF). The researchers from Portland, Oregon reported the chronic exposure to poor air quality due to smoke resulted in a higher rate of pregnancy loss, impaired fetal growth during pregnancy, and an increase in infertility.
Researchers in California evaluated the impact of wildfire smoke exposure on 1,983,700 children under the age of one year. The study compared infants exposed to wildfire particulate matter to those infants with no exposure. The results published in JAMA Network Open on February 22, 2023 reported an increase in emergency room visits for infants exposed to wildfire smoke. The study determined those infants most at risk were 4 or 5 months old. Most of the visits were related to breathing and lung issues.
Experts recommend limiting smoke exposure by avoiding outside air, keeping exercise inside, wearing N95 or KN95 masks, or using an air purifier.
The ghosts of the wildfires can cause significant health risks, so limit your exposure as much as possible!
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