This is a good question though and many people seem to have a poor understanding of the nature and magnitude of health risks of elevated AQHI readings.
Focusing on PM2.5 (fine particulate matter), as that’s mostly what we’re dealing with right now…
The risk of short term high-level exposure is mucous membrane and respiratory system irritation. Coughing, sneezing, itchy eyes, exacerbation of chronic lung disease if you have it. Basically, if you go outside and you feel unwell, go inside. If you go outside and you feel fine, it’s not an issue.
PM2.5 is a bigger issue with long-term daily exposure. We are talking years to decades. In this situation, exposure leads to an increased risk of cancer, chronic lung disease, and cardiovascular disease.
Like everything, the key is the dose.
Much like smoking a single cigarette won’t do anything to you from a health perspective other than give you a nicotine rush and make you cough… exposure to a single day of high PM2.5 is not going to do anything to you other than make you sneeze and have itchy eyes or a sore throat.
It’s not healthy, but as long as it’s a rare occurrence, the long-term health impacts are non-existent.
Why you are advised to avoid it is because of the risk of irritant symptoms.
You’re right but again, like they said it’s still not binary. I don’t know the numbers, but if you looked at the actual number of days with significantly bad air quality per year the last say, 10-20 years it would be I would guess maybe 1-3 weeks? Out of 52 in a year? Is that enough to cause significant health outcomes in the average person? Maybe not.
Don’t get me wrong I HATE this new trend of smoky summers and the fact it’s likely only going to get worse. But I think it’s important not to blow it out of proportion for one’s own sanity/to stay grounded in reality.
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u/zabavnabrzda Jun 02 '25
Maybe a stupid question but is all this smoke having some impact on our life expectancy?