PETERS: On wildfires and our mental health
(Armchair Mayor photo)
I HAVE A THEORY and it’s completely unproven — and probably unprovable.
Of the past seven summers in Kamloops, four have been marred by extreme wildfire situations. That’s 2017, 2018, 2021 and now 2023.
We have been party to mass evacuations, entire communities burning down and choking smoke blanketing the entire region for weeks at a time.
All of these events — even if they don’t affect us directly or acutely — serve to raise our community’s collective anxiety level.
We may not even notice it, but for many of us, as the calendar turns from May to June to July, we tense up. Will it be a good summer or a bad summer?
That judgment has little to do with the actual weather conditions. Instead, it’s the fire and smoke conditions we measure.
James Peters is the radio anchor at CFJC, coming to Kamloops in 2006. He anchors the afternoon news on B-100 and 98.3 CIFM, and contributes weekly editorials to the CFJC Evening News. He tweets regularly @Jamloops.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
yes, I agree with J. Peters’ article. Anxiety level increases: Is it so smokey that I need to wear a mask when I do my gardening (as it must be maintained)? It’s very hot and steamy to breath through a smoke protection mask and perform any chores that stress the body / breathing! But, if one suffers from even slight asthma then attention to this unpleasant detail IS important.
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