View Full Version : Canada Fires and Air Quality
I’m coming off a big anxiety spike right as the air quality where I live (Baltimore, MD) hit dangerous levels today due to the fires in Canada. My throat is sore and lungs feel bad and the air is just crazy. It’s hazy and you can smell the smoke. I keep reading about how it’s all fine particles that can get deep in your lungs and cause lasting damage. Something like this is so overwhelming because I just feel trapped. I’d have to drive like 4-5 hours west to get to better air quality and it could last like this for the next few days. My panic is about to reach a peak!!
We're in VA about 70 miles west of DC. The wife and I drove into DC today as we had booked a trolly tour for our anniversary/wife's B day. The haze, while a little better than yesterday was still quite thick and yeah, by the time we were done and coming home, we both had headaches. I cut the grass last evening and between the pollen and the smoke, I was a runny nosed mess after 30 minutes outside. While its making things a bit uncomfortable, I'm not concerned in the least. Heck, between all the years I smoked and consumed foods and drinks that were not exactly healthy, a day or two of poor air quality isn't going to make things any worse. We're home now and that's where we plan on staying. This will clear up in a few days.
FMP
Thanks, Fishman! I’m so sensitive to environmental things so they always bother me more than my family. I’m off from work tomorrow so I can stay inside. It looks like my daughter’s school is not going to reschedule field day, which is bugging me, because she’s excited for it but I don’t think it’s a great idea to be outside for hours running around tomorrow.
It’s much worse here today and it’s really causing me a panic. I can feel it in my chest and throat and feel like I’m being poisoned. It was supposed to maybe get a bit better today but instead it’s into the purple range of “very unhealthy” for everyone with the worst air quality we’ve ever seen in Baltimore. It feels like I’m suffocating both physically and mentally!!
Still feeling pretty stressed about this. My lungs have been sore all day and I just can't shake the horrible trapped feeling I have! I hope the forecasts are true that it will start to improve tomorrow. It's such a horrific feeling to not feel like I can access fresh air. I just want to take a big deep breath of clear air, but for 100s of miles around me is not safe to breath! I don't know how the folks on the west coast of the US deal with this regularly. It's so upsetting.
Do you have any kind of an air purifier? That might help, or be a good thing to have on hand in the future. I've seen videos of people making them with a box fan and air filters.
I'm sorry, it must be hard. The photos I've seen of NYC are intense! I live in a place where we do annual burns (and also get the drift from forest wildfires from time to time) so am no stranger to smoky air and how it can be uncomfortable, but thankfully it's never been that severe. Hopefully the air clears soon.
Thanks, Poppy! I ordered an air purifier that should be delivered soon! I'm hoping that brings some mental and physical relief. My class was switched to remote tonight so I don't have to go out. I'll run the purifier in the room where I Zoom and have my daughter sit in there with me also. Then I'll run it in her bedroom for a few hours and mine for a few hours. I wish I could have gotten one for all the rooms, but they're so expensive! Or, I may just sleep in her room tonight with it running because her room is smaller and my husband seems totally unaffected and thinks I'm being crazy. Hopefully tomorrow also brings more relief, but no one seems to know what is going to happen when. It's very hard! I have a particular anxiety about invisible, silent killers... so all the news of how many tiny particles are infiltrating my lungs is like my absolute worst nightmare!!
The air purifier I got seems to be pretty good. The smoke continues to just linger over my area like a blanket and keep my anxiety enveloping me in the same way! Are there others here from the American Northeast/Mid-Atlantic? How are you doing?
I live in Ontario, so we are pretty close to the wildfires. My kids have been having indoor recess all this week and we are trying to limit our exposure outside to a minimum. However, life goes on! I mean our air quality right now is similar to India or Iraq and millions of people live in these countries and go on about their lives outdoors. For us a few days are unlikely to cause issues!
Thanks, katniss! You’re right, of course! Things are improving down here. My lungs still feel really crappy, but hopefully that improves as the air does and as I use my purifier in my house. And some of it may be psychosomatic, although I’ve always been really sensitive to things like this even before I had anxiety.
So we're getting hit again with the smoke from the Canadian wild fires here. Its worse than it was earlier in the month and this time I'm really feeling it. I've had a bad headache and lots of mucous and runny nose since yesterday. I had plans to do all sorts of yard work today (and the yard needs it bad!) but this put the kabash on that and I feel like I've been hit by a truck :weep: Uggghhh.... Hopefully we'll get a wind shift and this will clear out soon.
FMP
So we're getting hit again with the smoke from the Canadian wild fires here. Its worse than it was earlier in the month and this time I'm really feeling it. I've had a bad headache and lots of mucous and runny nose since yesterday. I had plans to do all sorts of yard work today (and the yard needs it bad!) but this put the kabash on that and I feel like I've been hit by a truck :weep: Uggghhh.... Hopefully we'll get a wind shift and this will clear out soon.
FMP
It's terrible! And it feels like for the last month or so it's either raining or the air is poison so the whole summer is such a bust! I'll say that strangely this time seems not quite as bad for me. I think in the Baltimore area it was worse (into the purple category) last time. I also bought a good air purifier last time that I started running immediately this time around. My anxiety is also not out of control this time so that's helping me mentally cope. But, I had to drive to and from class last night and ended up with a pretty bad headache by the end of the night. It's so weird be cause it doesn't bother my husband or daughter. But, I've always been so sensitive to things like this. I ordered two smaller HEPA purifiers to put in our bedrooms so that in the future I can run our big one in the family room and keep the others in the bedrooms so we're pretty well covered.
It looks like it will hopefully start to dissipate through the weekend, but it's really such a frustrating and oppressive feeling to be literally bogged down by smoky air. I don't think the outlook is great for the whole summer. Apparently, whenever a low pressure system comes down from Canada - a weather event that normally brings us nice, mild, cooler summer weather - will now be bringing smoke. BLARG. I hope you feel better soon and your area clears up quickly!!
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