Friday September 18, 2020 | VICTORIA, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Smoke is currently beginning to dissipate across the western half of Vancouver Island.
As of 2 pm today September 18, the Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) was posted at 2 for Victoria/Saanich, and at 1 for the West Shore. Low Risk is between 1 and 3.
For most of the past seven days the AQHI has reached 10+ (surpassing the High Risk level).
The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy states that further improvements will continue across the province west to east with widespread improvement by Sunday.
COVID-19 aspect:
Spending time outdoors during the COVID-19 pandemic for reasons of physical and mental health was negatively impacted by people having to stay indoors even more than usual during the smoky skies.
The high levels of smoke — containing particulates from all that has burned in the fires in Washington State, Oregon and California (including houses, cars, metal, plastics, as well as the fire retardant material used for fire suppression), have meant keeping windows closed and avoiding any sort of exertion outdoors, even for healthy people.
Staying indoors and with windows closed runs counter to the public health advice that during COVID-19 it’s better to be outdoors than indoors.
As BC Health Minister Adrian Dix put it on September 14 after a very smoky-skies weekend (AQHI of 10+): “It was that kind of weekend, where more still was asked of us,” he said in the additional context of families gearing up for the start of in-class attendance in schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In particular, people who have breathing issues (e.g. asthma, lung disease) or any immune-comprised condition (e.g. diabetes, cancer) have been advised to avoid going outdoors during the smoky skies of the past week.
