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Gunbarrel smoke affecting health
By Carole Cloudwalker
This document was published online on Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Air quality in Cody since the Gunbarrel Fire moved to the area and grew to more than 86 square miles has deteriorated to the point that it could affect the health of some people.
The Wyoming Department of Health this week fell just short of issuing a caution to elderly and young people, and those suffering from heart problems, asthma and other respiratory troubles.
The caution still could come, health professionals said.
And people who come in contact with Park County's nursing staff in the courthouse “are talking about the fire,” said nursing supervisor Liz Keefer.
“Some people feel lousy,” and the fire is the likely cause, Keefer said.
“People with asthma seem to be affected” by smoke, she added,
The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has air quality monitoring equipment set up on a tower at Cody High School, and every three days filters sampling large particulates are changed and sent off for evaluation.
Because the process is not speedy, Cara Keslar, monitoring section supervisor for the DEQ in Cheyenne, said she recently received results from filters checked early in August.
They revealed readings of large particulates that were slightly higher than EPA standards for public health, though not nearly as high as some readings gathered from forest fires in Montana.
Keslar added that fine particulate, which is not sampled here, is the material that can cause the most severe health problems, since it can enter the lungs and bloodstream.
Keslar said her main function is to monitor for preventable, human-caused particulate, not that stemming from natural events such as fires since there is nothing that can be done to control those.
But Kim Deti of the Wyoming Department of Health in Cheyenne said she spoke with Keefer recently about the possibility of issuing a press release giving some tips to potentially at-risk people who are subjected to smoke from forest fires.
While such a caution has not been issued, Deti said past warnings have included advice that the general public should avoid heavy outdoor exercise when thick smoke is present.
The department also has warned that young children, whose airways still are developing and who “breathe more air per pound of body weight” than adults, should be protected from forest fire smoke.
Likewise, the elderly or adults suffering from heart or respiratory diseases (notably allergies, asthma and COPD) should remain indoors when smoke is thick in the outside air.
For more information call Keefer, 527-8570, or visit a doctor.
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