Wildfires rolling back years of improvement in NC air quality, could have long-term health impacts

Much of central North Carolina woke up to a hazy Tuesday morning – with Code Orange air quality alerts for the Triangle, but Code Red air quality impacting nearby parts of the state.

This year so far we've had about ten days with a Code Orange or higher – a result of the massive wildfires in Canada. This has been a problem for weeks with the smoke from the fires sweeping across the U.S.

There are more than 900 active fires across Canada right now – and more than half of them are burning out of control.

So far this year, these fires have destroyed nearly 11 million hectares. To put that in perspective: That would cover more than 20 million football fields.

A UNC professor in the department of Environmental Science and Engineering says all this smoke exposure we're seeing is reversing years of improvements in air quality in North Carolina.

"It’s having a really negative impact on our air quality and reversing years of gains that we’ve had in improving our air quality by regulating sources," said Dr. William Vizuete. “Clearly years of improvements in air quality are being reversed by the exposure that we’re seeing."

He says there have been studies that in recent years showing nearly half of the fine particulate matter in the western US are all from wildfires. That means that half of pollution the western states are experiencing come from wildfires.

“The air pollution that’s caused by these wildfires is essentially rolling back years of improvement that we’ve made in North Carolina in improving our air quality," he said.

It's more than just an issue of short-term exposure, he says. If we continue to be exposed to poor air quality over enough time, that cumulative exposure manifests itself in long-term chronic diseases.

"So it’s important to manage all our exposure so we can minimize that kind of long term exposure for our most vulnerable populations.," he said.