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The smoke fills the sky above Sacramento. (John Myers / Los Angeles Times)
Because of the fires ravaging northern California, San Francisco, Stockton and Sacramento were the three "most polluted cities" in the world Friday morning, according to Berkeley Earth, a non-profit organization that aggregates data from sites monitoring of air quality.
PurpleAir, which has a network of sensors around the world, has also shown that California Looked worse than traditional smog hot spots in India and China.
CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller confirmed that "no region of the planet has so many air quality stations in the highest" particle ranges, or PM, the toxic mixture of particles and droplets that worsens after forest fires.
These values, he said, "extend over hundreds of kilometers in northern and central California, from mountains to valleys and coasts".
Schools, colleges and public transportation have closed as campfire smoke spreads across the region.
"This seems to be the worst air quality ever experienced in San Francisco," said Dan Jaffe, professor of environmental chemistry at the University of Washington. He called the situation "air quality emergency" and experts said that the smoke could reverse decades of progress in pollution.
"We have made significant efforts and investments to clean our air, which has significant benefits for public health," said Dr. Daniel Jacob, professor of atmospheric chemistry and environmental engineering at the University of Ottawa. 39, Harvard University. "But now, it's as if we were stabbed in the back with these forest fires."
Some call cancellations "too little, too late"
The San Francisco Transit Agency has used its cable cars off the streetsSeveral schools canceled classes and the National Park Service suspended visits to Alcatraz Island.
The public schools of San Francisco and Alameda County were closed Friday, as were UC Davis and UC Merced. The University of Berkeley also canceled Friday classes, but some students criticized the University's decision to stay open on Thursday while smoke was coming out of campus.
The school's students' association sent a letter to their Chancellor, in which she denounced "the government's inadequate response to these risks to public health" and urged the administrators to allocate emergency funds for the children. masks and mobile air filtration units.
"The campus buildings are not equipped to filter pollutants making the indoor air as harmful as the outside," the group wrote. Some students, even those who had no pre-existing illness, said that they felt sick.
"I had a bloody throat, a bloody nose, a cough, dry, watery eyes, and my throat is still very painful and dry," said rookie Sabrina Thorn. "I almost lost consciousness trying to go to class yesterday. My teacher told me to go home.
Students have trouble finding respirators
Thorn's sister gave him a mask, but freshman Samantha Greene said other students were struggling to find them. This is because the university health service does not distribute it to all students, but only to people with medical conditions such as asthma.
"There are more than 40,000 students at the university," said spokesman Dan Mogulof, "and we simply do not have access to masks of this number."
Some students, however, continue to believe that the school needs to do more.
"I have a lot of friends who are spitting blood and [were] forced to seek emergency medical help because of Berkeley's air and reluctance to act, "said Greene.
The student association itself has decided to distribute masks Thursday, she said, resulting in a large crowd while people "desperately [tried] get respirators from [the] Student run club, which ran out in the first five minutes and turned into a crowd scene. "
In stores near Berkeley, the masks also sold quickly, Greene explained, resulting in "a kind of absurd competition between students to get one." "
In a message to students announcing Friday's cancellation, Carol Christ, Chancellor of the School, said Thursday that Berkeley only had a limited number of "N-95" respirators appropriate for Students with health problems that may make them particularly vulnerable to the impact of degraded air quality. "
Greene called it "too little, too late" and said the masks were still hard to find. The university told students that "even these relatively advanced masks offer limited protection and do not replace stays in the interior."
Jaffe, however, said that "masks really help" if they are worn properly and are "better than nothing", although staying in a building with filtered air provides the best protection.
The university, for its part, says it does its best. "Our students, like our staff, our teachers, and our neighbors, are undoubtedly affected by one of the biggest natural disasters in California's history," said Mogulof. "The university simply does not have the capacity to completely mitigate the impacts of this forest fire."
Stay safe in the smoke
"The world 's deadliest particles," said Jacob, "and the levels present in areas affected by forest fires are comparable to those that one could expect on a highly polluted day in China or India. "
"Smoke from fires releases particles small enough to enter our nose and lungs," Jaffe added, "young children and the elderly are at greatest risk for immediate health problems."
Particles can worsen asthma, decrease lung function and increase the risk of cardiovascular events such as stroke, according to a study published last year in the Lancet. And because children with the development of the respiratory tract breathe more air per pound of body weight than adults, they may experience more serious symptoms.
"We give people advice to act indoors and reduce drills, etc., but that does not overly ease the problem." This is especially true in San Francisco, where many do not have air conditioning.
Without any sort of "controlled system" to filter the air, Jaffe said, a building does not offer a lot of protection against particles. When the air is properly filtered, however, people can "reduce their exposure to particles by about 90%" by being in the interior, he said.
If you have to go outside, Jaffe recommends the use of an N95 respirator, a mask specifically designed to "very effectively filter out airborne particles" when in the air. it is worn properly, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
The agency warns that "an appropriate fit can not be achieved on children and people with facial hair," which means that masks "may not provide complete protection" to these people.
But even if you are able to protect your lungs, Jaffe said, a deterioration in air quality can be demoralizing. "There is also a mental health problem," he said. "Everyone is unhappy and it's hard to enjoy life."
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