Opening your front door and stepping out into the haze of wildfire smoke weighs heavily in parts of the country where summer is so often fleeting.
And while dire predictions about this year’s wildfire season didn’t come to fruition, the smoke blanketing much of northern Alberta, as well as large swaths of the Prairies, this week is a quick reminder that for the foreseeable future, this is the new normal for summer.
Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina and Flin Flon, Man. were among the communities where the Air Quality Health Index soared to a 10+, or very high risk. For kids and seniors, that’s a potential serious hazard as well as for people who are pregnant and others dealing with chronic health issues, such as heart or lung conditions.
“During heavy smoke conditions, everyone is at risk regardless of their age or health,” Environment Canada’s air quality advisory said, adding that the fine particles in wildfire smoke pose the main health risk.
“Limit time outdoors. Consider rescheduling or cancelling outdoor sports, activities and events.”
While irritated eyes, sore throats and coughing are the obvious signs of the smoke, the effects on people’s mental health are also a concern.
As reported last year by The Globe, the psychological effects of wildfire smoke are far-ranging, and still not fully understood.
“There have been in the last couple years these cardinal events that open people’s eyes,” said David Eisenman last year, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has studied the psychological effects of wildfire smoke globally, including in Canada. “It’s happening here now and affecting them immediately, affecting their families immediately, and affecting their health immediately.”
Studies increasingly point to the serious mental health toll that living with wildfire smoke can take, something many in Western Canada are certainly realizing.
And while the smoke effects might be seen as a minor inconvenience for some, they can pose some very practical dangers as well.
RCMP in Vermilion, near Alberta’s border with Saskatchewan, said a 36-year-old man was killed after rolling his truck Thursday morning since a mix of fog and smoke reduced visibility to zero.
Meanwhile, the Calgary Stampeders football team said it was “monitoring air quality conditions” ahead of the team’s home game against the Ottawa Redblacks, while in Regina, the Saskatchewan Roughriders moved a morning practice indoors. And organizers of Sunday’s marathon in Edmonton said they would provide an update Friday.
As of Thursday, there were 902 fires burning across the country, the majority in British Columbia and Alberta. Included in that number is the wildfire that forced the evacuation of nearly 25,000 from Jasper National Park last month.
Residents of the mountain town will be permitted to return Friday morning, with authorities tightly controlling the re-entry. There are about 5,000 permanent residents in Jasper, and an additional 5,000 seasonal employees.
This is the weekly Alberta newsletter written by Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.