Laura Foster

speaker

17 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Aug 2026 last heard 6 Aug

Laura Foster’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.

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Global News Podcast · BBC reports on Ukraine's battle with Russia in the Black Sea · 6 Aug 2026 podcast

I can't see very well.

And I get a bit frustrated.

So I want to do the things that I can do.

They took various bits of satellite and weather data from Canada, looking at where fires were, how plumes of smoke were travelling during the wildfire season, and they put it all into a computer which worked out how much the air was filled with very small particles.

These are called PM2.5s, and they're called that because they're less than 2.5 micrometres wide.

To give you some context, if you take a strand of your hair or if you look at a hair on your arm, that's like one thirtieth the width of a human hair.

So it really shows how small they are and how they can get into your system.

And what they did is they compared all that data from wildfire seasons and looked at admissions to emergency departments in Ontario and Alberta.

The researchers found at the same time there was also an increase of more than 6%.

two emergency departments for headaches and migraines.

Because of these tiny PM2.5s, they're so small they can get into our lungs and they contain these toxic compounds that can trigger various stress and inflammation in blood vessels and that can carry around our systems, it can activate the nerve pathways and it leads to these migraines that require emergency care.

But then there's the second effect of wildfires in that the stress and anxiety and sleep disruption and behavioural changes that come about because you're caught up in a wildfire that also can lead to increased migraines and headaches.

When you get old, you can't go here, you can't do this, you can't drive, you can't see.

I can't see very well.

And I get a bit frustrated.

So I want to do the things that I can do.

So kind to me and straight away the treatment I got.

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