WLWT: Doctor from UC College of Medicine discusses air quality impacts from wildfire smoke

“The small particles that are less than two and a half microns or micrometers are able to penetrate all the way into the deepest part of your lung and absorbed into your body so they can travel to different parts of your body. When that happens it aggravates the cells in your lung, and they release mediators that cause problems for all kinds of things. For example, your airways will restrict if you have asthma or your heart will be beating at a higher rate and be stressed. These particles are dangerous. Besides that there are a lot of other chemicals in the fire, closer to the fire that are very dangerous.”

Leikauf says there are several things people should do to mitigate the impact of the smoky conditions.

“Limit your exercise outside, limit your time outside,” he says. “The N-95 mask actually blocks these particles that we’re talking about, so it’s a good thing for people to wear when you're outside. You can get air cleaners that you can put inside your home. You can actually build one if you take a box fan, just put a filter on the back, get some duct tape on the inside of the fan, it will actually help filter the air.”

Leikauf says one particularly problematic aspect of the smoke from the wildfires is the ability of the particles to get inside buildings.

“Unlike ozone which when you go inside you really reduce the concentration of ozone, these particles penetrate through into your home, about 70%," he says. "So, if you have an unhealthy condition, you can imagine 70% less is not enough.”