Wildfire smoke raises Michigan's air quality, climate change awareness - Detroit Free Press

Wildfire smoke raises Michigan's air quality, climate change awareness

Bad air quality in Michigan has raised pollution, climate change awareness
Frank Witsil

If there is a silver lining in the smoky clouds from Canada this month, experts say, it’s that Michiganders and millions of Americans have gained a greater awareness of how air pollution affects them, how the air quality index works and the risks of climate change.

Hopefully, National Weather Service Meteorologist Dave Kook said, the air quality alerts from the state and forecasts from his colleagues have helped bring to light important information that is keeping people safe, and perhaps may have saved their lives.

More than understanding the science, he said, what's vital is that the public takes action.

The state has extended this week's air quality alert to Friday, and forecasting models have the haze thinning out.

However, even when the eye-watering smoke dissipates from Michigan, more than 200 out-of-control Canadian wildfires continue to rage, and, meteorologists add, wind shifts could blow unhealthy air back down into the state throughout the summer.

That means, health experts say, that folks — such as older adults, young children, and people with health problems — who are sensitive to bad air will need to watch for weather forecasts and alerts, and remain on guard through the summer.

Purple and maroon zones

With the entire state under an air quality alert, Michiganders learned what the numbers in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's air quality index mean: Anything over 100 is unhealthy for people who may be at risk, 151 to 200 is the red zone.

And it turns out, in this color-coded system, there are colors worse than red. A score of more than 201 puts a community in the purple zone, and more than 301, the maroon zone, which indicates emergency conditions for everyone.

More: Canadian wildfires are sending smoke to Europe, but it is only sometimes hitting Michigan

The idea that clean air — or "fresh air," as mom used to say when you lingered too long indoors as a kid— is good for you is nothing new. Physicians and other scientists have been extolling the virtues of clean air for decades, and they point out, there's plenty of human-caused air pollution that's doing damage to youngsters.

University of Michigan researchers, for instance, noted in a study that factories near public schools jeopardize "children's health and academic success," finding that pollution tends to put "children of color" disproportionately at risk.

And governments sent some seemingly contradictory messages this week. At the same time officials were warning about poor air quality, communities also were planning to set off fireworks, which, release all sorts of contaminants into the air that can affect health and contribute to climate change.

Specific things we can do

Still, before the wildfire smoke began wafting south, relatively few Americans gave much thought to air quality, despite the efforts by the EPA, and multiple other federal and state agencies, to promote " Air Quality Awareness Week" at the beginning of May.

The theme was "Working Together for Clean Air," a message researchers say will be increasingly important.

John Besley, the Ellis N. Brandt Professor of Public Relations at Michigan State University who studies what the public thinks about science and scientists’ opinions, told the Free Press that from a communication perspective it is crucial for policymakers and journalists to push "beyond helping people recognize an issue exists."

With the wildfires — which some scientists say are related to climate change, the hotter temperatures and droughts that are drying out forests and turning them into tinder boxes — the challenge, Besley said, is to educate the public and get people "to think about specific things they can do" that may help mitigate what's causing it.

In Michigan, he said, some of those things may be "going all-in on electrification" and turning to more alternative and renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar and nuclear power, as well as "efforts to improve boring things like insulation and land management."

Overall, the professor makes the case that what is needed is "a wide swath of people to, where appropriate, believe" that such paths are beneficial, that they are broadly acceptable to others, and that the technology and resources exist to make them happen.

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.