Smoke drifting south from Canadian wildfires has made skies in Pennsylvania and other states hazy this week. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection declared a Code Orange Air Quality Action Day for particulate matter from wildfire smoke on Tuesday and Wednesday for a number of counties. 

Joellen Russell is an oceanographer, climate scientist, and University Distinguished Professor at the University of Arizona. She’s also a cofounder of the nonpartisan group Science Moms, which aims to talk honestly about climate change and its impacts, especially on kids and the future.

“You know, we all loved running around like crazy kids in our summer camp or our favorite fishing hole or a favorite camp spot,” she said. “And now seeing the tragedy in Texas and other places where they’ve either had floods or fires or heat waves that make it impossible…just tragic.”

The Allegheny Front’s Kara Holsopple talked with Russell specifically about the impacts of wildfire smoke and how to protect ourselves and our families.

LISTEN to the interview

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Kara Holsopple: Smoke from wildfires has been impacting us here in states outside of where fires are occurring. What are some of the health impacts of wildfire smoke, even if it’s somewhat dispersed? 

Joellen Russell: If we’re in the middle of our summer heat dome season, basically, the smoke follows the airflow. [Wildfire] burns at all these different temperatures over all these materials, some of which are natural, some of which are structures and man-made things. All of those partially burned products end up as particulates and other pollutants in the air. 

It is terrible, especially for children or people with compromised immune systems. Children breathe more air relative to their body weight and spend more time outdoors than adults do, which increases their exposure to air pollutants. Their smaller airways are also more vulnerable to constriction caused by air pollution and allergens.

We know that when there’s wildfire smoke in the air, we will see an increase in admissions at hospitals. The emergency rooms will be jammed. And it’s people who have asthma, people, children, elders, people with COPD, because, in fact, unless you’re prepared, even when you are, it can be quite challenging.

Wildfire smoke is a serious health hazard, particularly when we get up into an orange day or, heaven forbid, a red day, when folks should be staying indoors, especially with compromised immune systems. But imagine we’ve got construction crews out. We’ve road crews out. We’ve got building crews out. There are landscapers, and then there are all the kids at summer camp. It’s a big deal. It affects a lot of people. 

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Kara Holsopple: Why does this season’s wildfire smoke seem to be sticking around and keeping our skies hazy?

Joellen Russell: It’s because it’s not raining. Rain is the best way to strip smoke and pollution out of the air. It works for fossil fuel pollution, but it also works for wildfire smoke and particulates. The way to get rid of particulates is not to wait for them to settle. That’s the long, slow way.

The problem in the summer is [that] when we’ve got those big heat domes that build and long dry periods, particularly here in the desert, but also in Pennsylvania and everywhere else, we get longer periods when it does not rain. And that’s mostly because the jet [stream] is pushed way north, so far north that we’re not even raining in the wildfire areas, which is why they’re continuing to burn, and burn hotter.

Rain is the best way to strip smoke and pollution out of the air. It works for fossil fuel pollution, but it also works for wildfire smoke and particulates.

That shift in the jet, et cetera, these are climate-related. It’s hotter; it’s drier. The jet stays fixed further north, for longer, which makes for these big heat domes, which then allow all of that wildfire and human pollution to accumulate and not be stripped out by rainfall. This is a compounding effect.

Kara Holsopple: Can we expect this to become even worse in the future? 

Joellen Russell: Human-caused climate change is a significant contributor to the growing intensity of Western U.S. Wildfires. And that jet position being fixed, which is why you’ve got longer, drier periods in places like Pennsylvania. So, increasing the size and damage of the fires means increasing amounts of wildfire smoke. 

Everybody’s gonna have to start paying close attention to the alerts, you know, meaning when it’s an orange or a red day, make sure if you’ve got elders, that you’ve checked in and said, ‘Hey, not a good grocery day,’ you know, or ‘Let me go for you.’ Make sure that your kids aren’t just running around the neighborhood like mine. Especially for little ones who might be prone to asthma, it is dangerous for them.

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Kara Holsopple: Just say a little bit more about an orange day and a red day, as people have seen those warnings sometimes on the weather report.


Joellen Russell: Yeah, so you’re starting to see them on the weather report because we’re trying to manage our emergency rooms. Today is not a great day in Tucson because it’s very hot, it’s very dry, and we’ve got wildfire smoke plus our usual smog, which isn’t getting rinsed out the way it might, given we usually have monsoon storms right now.

So, on an orange day, you should really be checking in with elders, young people, et cetera. That’s where you start to worry that if they had a big exposure day, say it’s a field day or your kids are in camp, make sure they’ve got masks, make sure that they can protect themselves, especially if they start to feel tight in the chest. These are warning signs.

If it gets to be a red day, our elders and our young people need to stay inside. And I know it is sort of a silent killer. It’s not like a big flood or a huge storm or violent winds. It’s the same as with heat waves. These are creeping. And you might say, well, the first day of red, no big deal, you know, we’ll just stay indoors, play more games, it’ll be fine. But by the third day, the kid wants out. Cabin fever season for us in Arizona has always been the summer. But having cabin fever days in the summer, elsewhere in the U.S. not used to this at all, it’s a big deal. We’re having to think carefully and adapt carefully to avoid those emergency room trips. 

Kara Holsopple: When you say masks, you mean the kind of masks we used to wear during COVID?

Joellen Russell: Yeah, I do. I mean, those actual KN95s that fit over your nose. We all know what the crappy masks look like. Not those. Actually try for one of those KN95s because they really do filter out. My dad got used to them. He’s got terrible hay fever allergies. And when he was in his 60s and 70s, it was no big deal. But once he hit 80, he really felt like he didn’t want to spend any days knocked up with pneumonia from getting too much post-nasal drip. He was getting that, so he started wearing his mask to keep the allergies down, and it worked.

I don’t have asthma, but I have diabetes, and it makes me more vulnerable to allergens and other particulate pollution, so I wear one of those old KN95s. I crack them out and use them again. There isn’t a whole lot we could do about the outdoor space except either avoid it or mitigate it with a mask. And of course, making sure that they’re sleeping clean, and a HEPA filter really helps with that.

Here in Arizona, the wildfire smoke is so consistent in the summers that I had to put HEPA filters in my kids’ rooms back when they were expensive. Now it’s much, much cheaper, and everybody should do it. But when they’re asleep, you need [air pollution] stripped out.

People can also do it for the whole house. If you have filters in your furnace system or in your AC system, you can actually swap those for HEPA-level filters. They cost a little more, but not a lot. They help filter out those extra allergens. You’re not just recycling that stuff within your house. You know, there are lots of things we can do. I advocate all of it, you know, just for whatever suits your family. Kind of a kitchen table decision.

Joellen Russell is an oceanographer, climate scientist and Distinguished Professor at the University of Arizona.