Air quality in the Los Angeles region has plummeted due to smoke from the ongoing wildfires. With all that smoke comes possible risks to human health. So what actually is smoke and why is it so harmful? Jessica Gilman, an atmospheric chemist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, explains what smoke is made of, how it behaves in the atmosphere and smoke's role in climate change. Plus, tips for how to lessen your exposure. Check out the CDC's recommendations for avoiding smoke inhalation here. Read more of NPR's coverage of the fires.Questions, story ideas or want us to dig more into the science underpinning natural disasters? Email us at [email protected] — we'd love to hear from you!Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation, providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, gender, or geography. Kauffman.org. Hey, Short Wavers. Emily Kwong here.
Longtime host and friend of Planet Earth have gone outside because I want to ask you a question. Our team wants to know, what changes are you noticing in your local environment? Maybe the fire season is lasting longer and longer, or there's an area of your town that just keeps flooding. Maybe there's less bees or a policy or technology that has dramatically changed life in your town.
Send us a voice memo with your name, the place where you live, and the change you've noticed in your local environment and have science questions about, and we'll investigate. Our email is shortwave at npr.org. Thanks so much. You're listening to Shortwave. from NPR. Since Tuesday, fires have continued to blaze across Los Angeles, burning over 30,000 acres of land.
And this area has a history of wildfires, but as we've heard from officials, this is an extreme case with so many saying they have never seen conditions like they're seeing today. This looks ominous and frightening. Those flames are huge. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes. You've seen these mandatory evacuation orders in place.
And the scope of these wildfires has caused the air quality to plummet. Air quality is monitored through the AQI, a color-coded air quality index. And right now, parts of L.A. are in the orange and red zone, meaning ash, toxins, and superfine particles, the kind that can get lodged in your lungs, are at such unhealthy levels that all people should stay inside.
And even as firefighters work around the clock to contain the blaze, the smoke will stay and drift. worsening the air quality well beyond the fires.
That's one of the interesting things with smoke is that it doesn't stay where it was emitted. It travels with the wind and can impact large parts of the population well downwind of the fires.
Jessica Gilman is an atmospheric chemist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And after wildfires broke out in the American West in 2020, we talked to her about the dangers of inhaling smoke. Any wildfire smoke is toxic. But Lisa Miller, a wildfire smoke expert at the University of California, Davis, has another concern. L.A.
residents right now face an additional risk from all the homes and buildings that have been incinerated. The man-made materials, so things in cars, things in homes, Think of all the synthetic fibers that are present just in your living room, right? In your couch, in your carpet, maybe even your clothes. All of those things can be particularly toxic.
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