"It burns my face. I feel it in my nostrils," Trevino says.
The heat wave sprawling across the southern United States has lasted since June 14, and the sultry air and humidity make for temperatures that feel like they are higher than 40 degrees C (104 degrees F).
Houston, the fourth most populous US city with 2.3 million people, is home to four oil refineries (one of them among the nation's largest), heavy industry, a tangle of highways and plenty of trucks.
"In past years, we may have a heat emergency that lasts typically two, three, maybe four days at the most (but) I've never seen in the last 20 years... where it extends past a week and a half," Porfirio Villarreal, spokesman for the Houston Health Department, told AFP.
Between four and 10 people die each year in the city of Houston from heat-related illness, Villarreal said.
Trevino, 31, an organizer with Public Citizen, lives next to a truck parking lot where exhaust spews constantly.
Fewer than seven miles away (10 kilometers) is the Houston Ship Channel, site of major industrial and petrochemical activity.
The heat and pollution have delivered a one-two blow.
- High ozone days -
"It's absolutely affecting my health, no doubt about it," she said, trucks rumbling behind her home in the southwest of the city.
"In Houston, we're affected by a lot of ground-level ozone... (which) is what happens when pollution and heat combine."
"When we have heat waves here that are 100 degrees (F) for several weeks on end, plus the high levels and spikes and pollution that we have from the industry, then that results in a lot of days with high ozone levels."
Ozone can be good or bad depending on where it exists. Good ozone occurs naturally in the upper atmosphere, shielding humans from harmful ultraviolet rays.
But ozone at ground level is a harmful contaminant, and is caused when pollutants emitted by vehicles, power plants, refineries and other sources chemically react with sunlight, especially in hot weather, the Environmental Protection Agency says.
Trevino, who also is director of the Health Port Communities Coalition, demands that ozone meters be installed near industrial areas of the city. None exist currently.
- Millions affected -
According to the American Lung Association, nearly 120 million US citizens (more than a third of the nation) live in areas with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution, with some of them vulnerable to illness and even death.
"I feel like that it is extremely dangerous for our health in the long run, especially for the little ones and the elderly," said Esmeralda Carr, a 32-year-old mother of four and a neighbor of Trevino's.
"When you have a lot of pollution, you end up having more people go to the hospitals. They may have asthma, which is exacerbated by that ozone or that pollution," Villarreal said.
Those most harmed by the pollution are African American and Latino communities, the American Lung Association says.
Canada wildfire smoke chokes millions in North America
Montreal (AFP) June 30, 2023 -
A deep orange-brown sun shined through hazy skies as smoke from Canadian wildfires spread across North America and beyond, choking millions of people and triggering severe air quality alerts.
Here's why the fires are so smoky and why people should be concerned.
- Why is there so much smoke? -
The number of fires and the amount of land scorched, as well as the amount of smoke emitted from the blazes, are unprecedented this wildfire season, and it is just the beginning, according to officials.
The fact that fires flared at the same time across the country is also unusual.
As of Wednesday, more than eight million hectares (20 million acres) of forests and grasslands had burned across Canada, breaking an annual record of 7.3 million hectares set in 1989.
And Canada has yet to reach the peak of the fire season, which is usually in July or August.
"We have a fire in northern Quebec which currently covers 700,000 hectares, for example. It's hard to fathom just how big it is," said Yan Boulanger, a fire specialist for the Canadian Ministry of Natural Resources.
A hot, dry spring resulted in a large fuel load -- dried vegetation and dead branches -- in Canada's boreal forest.
Smoldering humus fires that can burn deep underground produce a lot of smoke, resulting in higher carbon monoxide emissions, says Jack Chen of Canada's environment ministry.
The climate consequences are devastating as the boreal forest releases 10 to 20 times more carbon per unit of area burned than other ecosystems.
Hundreds of forest fires since early May have generated nearly 600 million tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to 88 percent of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions from all sources in 2021, the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) reported.
- What are the health concerns? -
Wildfire smoke is more toxic than other types of smoke and can be more dangerous to human health than other sources of air pollution, for example.
The particles are fine and can travel deep into the respiratory tract.
Composed of ozone, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and PM2.5 fine particles, smoke from forest fires is a danger to all, according to experts and officials.
But it can be particularly dangerous for young children, pregnant women, smokers, seniors and those who suffer from chronic health problems, the Canadian government has warned.
"The particles are so small, particularly the ultra-fine ones, that they can get all the way down into your lungs and then cross over into your bloodstream and lead to inflammation," said Courtney Howard, an emergency room doctor in Yellowknife in Canada's Northwest Territories.
It also can have direct consequences on mental health, mood and anxiety, doctors say.
- What are the effects on wildlife? -
Wildfire smoke particles contain a higher proportion of carbon-based pollutants in various chemical forms that may be spread hundreds of kilometers (miles) from the fires themselves.
This smoke can lead to "acute or chronic health effects on wildlife," just like in humans, said Matthew Mitchell of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
"There's a whole suite of chemicals in the smoke that can affect gas exchange in the blood, lower the lung capacity of animals," he told AFP.
Weakened animals will tend to "rest more or try to reduce their activity. So they're not going out and feeding, looking for food or mates," he said.
"Even marine mammals such as whales and dolphins can be affected by the smoke when they come up to breathe," he said.
Related Links
Weather News at TerraDaily.com
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
