Hamilton and southern Ontario faced another day of terrible air quality due to smoke from wildfires in northwestern Ontario.
Thursday’s air quality was just as bad as Wednesday, with warnings urging people to remain indoors away from the polluted air, and many experiencing health effects from the smoke.
Environment Canada uses a one-to-10 air quality scale, and this region’s rating exceeded 10 – indicating a very high risk to health and the worst possible rating.
One thing stood out on Thursday.
The smoke over the Hamilton area appeared to have a blue tint, contrasting with Wednesday’s sickly orange haze.
However, the high health risk from the wildfire smoke began well before sunrise and lasted for most of the day.
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The Hamilton Paramedic Service received numerous calls about people affected by the bad air – 14 calls within 24 hours.
“I think there’s been a slight uptick in respiratory related calls – within about 150 so far this week, and last week there were 200 total,” said Hamilton Paramedic Services Commander Dave Thompson. “It can be anything from chest pain, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing and a headache. It affects everybody, whether they have a pre-existing health condition or not, because we’re all breathing the same thing and we’re all getting it in our lungs.”
With doctors advising everyone to stay indoors, Dr. Kevan Mehta, a respirologist with Hamilton Health Sciences, says this kind of air pollution can have serious impacts when it enters your lungs.
“The most immediate and short-term effects would be some people experiencing an irritated nose, sore throat, sore eyes or irritated eyes,” said Mehta. “It can cause chest tightness, coughing, wheezing.”
This can be especially harmful for individuals with lung or heart issues but may worsen for others too.
“Smoke like this has particles that can be small enough to enter our deep parts of our lungs and even into our bloodstream. From there those can affect the small airways in the longer term and even distant parts of our body – these even pass into the bloodstream affecting our heart our kidneys, our brain and blood vessels,” said Mehta.
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D ue to warnings urging people to stay inside, Hamilton’s Bayfront Park was nearly empty at times.
“I used to come down here about three or four times a week and do my walks around the park,” said local resident Gary Cooper. “But today he said the air smells too much like a barbeque. I’m just going back to my car now. It’s too – you can taste it; taste the weather the way it is.”
A few police departments in the area reported receiving calls from residents mistakenly thinking there were fires nearby because of smoke coming from northwest regions.
The usually bustling James Street North saw an empty patio at El Grito Mexicano losing customers due to poor air conditions.
“Nobody in the patio; nobody wants to sit outside,” said Diana Salazar at El Grito Mexicano. “It smells very bad; so people don’t want to go out.”
The last update indicated that Hamilton’s air quality still had that extreme 10-plus rating expected to continue until Friday.
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