StemCell Therapy

MISSOULA Fires burning across the state continue to blanket Western Montana under athick layer of smoke, smoke that many of us are breathing in on a daily basis.

The air quality in Western Montana hasnt been clean for quite some time.There are between35 and 250 smoke particulates per cubic centimeter of air and when you breathe in thatcontaminated air, those particulates settle in the lungs.

So these irritants can settle in there and people that have baseline lung disease can be more at risk for problems from that, said Dr. Kristin Anderson, who practices family and preventative medicine.

Those problems range in severity, you may get a sore throat or worsening asthma, but some problemscould warrant immediate medical attention.

Chest heaviness is a pretty specific symptom, and thats one that doctors take very seriously, so obviously if you are feeling chest heaviness, its something that new to you or worsening, worse with activity, you need to be examined immediately, Dr. Anderson said.

Doctors advise people to avoid the outdoors as often as possible in order to help save your lungs.

This isnt the time to go and do some activities outside, certainly this isnt the day to work on your garden, but rather try to find some fun activities to do inside for the small ones and the young ones, Dr. Anderson said.

Missoula is a very active community, and people may not like the idea of spending the rest of the summer indoors, so they might be tempted to go to a hardware store and buy a paper mask. When air quality is bad, officials say paper masks really dont help.

Basic masks are probably not going to make much of a dent in what is going into your lungs from the smoke, Dr. Anderson said. They generally stop large particles, but not the smaller particles.

N95 industrial masks are recommended for those who are required to stay outside for

work, but Dr. Anderson said its best to stay indoors as much as possible.

As of Thursday morning, air quality had improved in Helena to Moderate.

For more information on air quality conditionsclick here.

MTNs Eric Clements

Read more here:
Western Montana wildfire smoke continues to pose health risks - KTVH

This entry was posted on September 7, 2017 at 11:44 pm and is filed under Preventative Medicine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |