BEPPLE – Enjoy the rest of the summer, no matter the smokey skies
(Image: File photo by Mel Rothenburger)
WE ARE WELL INTO the Dog Days of summer. July 3 to August 11 are so named for the star Sirius, also known as the Dog Star, which appears in the sky at this time.
Dog Days are known as the hottest and most unbearable. Now more and more, here in Kamloops and other places in B.C., they’re the Smoky Dog Days.
Each day, I look out to see the hazy grow thicker and thicker. Years ago, I would have forgone the outdoors. But now, like many others, I continue on with my plans. The whole summer would be gone if I waited for clear skies.
People talk about blue sky when there is barely a skim of blue breaking through the brown smog. Glass half full, we talk about how at least the smoke keeps the sun from raising the temperature to extremes.
Scenery looks like an old photograph, with faded colours, decreased contrasts, and low colour saturation. Some days, I feel like I’m walking through a retro movie, with the soft, orange light softening the scenery.
Event organizers have learned to be flexible. For example, on particularly bad smoke days, Theatre under the Trees in Prince Charles Park heads indoors to Pavilion Theatre.
There’s rain forecast for Monday. I doubt anyone will complain. It will be good to see the blue sky again.
It will be good to see Sirius, brightest star in the night sky again too.
Enjoy the summer no matter the smoke. And stay fire smart. There’s enough smoke around already.
Nancy Bepple is a Kamloops City councillor with a strong interest in community building projects.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
It’s good to know how to take care during heavy smoke episodes like this: making sure to drink a lot of water and ensuring that pregnant women, small children and babies, the elderly and anyone with chronic illness are especially careful to stay indoors. When the AQHI is at 7 or higher (it is at a 9 right now), it is the right thing to be ready and willing to alter activities, rather than “continue on with plans.” Children should not be out playing in high particulate because they don’t know how to refrain from exerting themselves. Having them do a dance party indoors, or go to the local swimming pool is a great alternative way to get them active without overwhelming their small bodies from fine particle air pollution.
PM2.5 particles from smoke aren’t just bad for lungs – they get into the bloodstream and from there can be deposited in every organ in the body. These particles can be a factor in the early onset of dementia in the elderly and be the cause of altered brain development in the young. For an unborn child, air pollution experienced by its mother is also a detriment to in-utero development (studies have shown an outcome of smaller head, brain and lung sizes leading to life-long deficits).
It is for reasons like these that I don’t think one can take a laissez faire approach to enjoying the summer “no matter the smoky skies.” Taking regard of the smoke does matter, and people with the opportunity to educate others about care that can be taken, have a responsibility to message in this way. Sheltering from smoke and running air purifiers to lessen the amount of fine particulate that makes its way into our homes, even when our doors and windows are closed, is a valid and important effort to make.
Hopefully, places like Aberdeen Mall, Chapters and other City run facilities, like the pools, will have air scrubbers which will give people an alternative choice to going out in this smoke. Thank you to the Theatre X folks for making a plan for their audiences!
Here is a link to the AQHI: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/air-quality-health-index/health-risks.html
Here is a link to a reputable source illustrating the effects of PM2.5 air pollution (particularly from wood smoke) on more sensitive members of the population: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/01/avoid-using-wood-burning-stoves-if-possible-warn-health-experts
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Thank you Gina. It’s easy to forget the harms. I appreciate the time you put into your wisdom
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Thank you for this acknowledgement, Nancy.
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Dear Gina:
When the air quality drops to unhealthy levels by causes outside anyone’s control the City of Kamloops should install traffic protocols to lessen the amount of further air pollution sources. Most people could take one or two less trips a day in their automobiles for sure.
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I 100% agree. In Utah, when the particulate is high enough, signs are put along roadways to tell people to increase their shared transport options and minimize their individual car travel. They call it “red air days” based on their USA Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Air Quality Index (AQI). Everyone there has been educated that on red air days, reduced vehicle use is expected so the amount of added exhaust to already degraded air is minimized.
More messaging around how vehicle use impacts air quality would be excellent, but sadly, I wonder how a car dependent nation such as this would really buy into making a change. And truly, if our society, after suffering horrible debilitating smoke through the summer, has, at the first sign of frost in the fall, some people deciding to burn wood to heat their homes, I don’t think that we are in a very strong place for seeing attitudes and ideas change about how to take care of the air we all share. It is just really sad.
Over the years, a number of moms have written to me with concern for their children because of wood smoke pouring out of a chimney next door. The helplessness they feel about it has a negative affect on their mental health (an added health effect that many people don’t think of in relation to air impacts). I think that there are more and more people experiencing feelings of helplessness because of the choices of others. Here’s hoping for governments that will be bold and put restrictions or bans in place that will prevent one neighbour’s actions from taking away another neighbour’s rights. It isn’t fair for one citizen to be given the right to burn wood when it takes away the right of another citizen to have clean air in their yard and home. I really hope for a different future.
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Dear Gina:
Change can only happen when the people elect politicians who do not fit the mold and who are willing to be bold. The next four years in Kamloops will be even worse than the past.
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