When smoke from California’s deadliest wildfire blew into downtown Sacramento last November, daylight blurred into dusk and the city’s air became among the world’s most polluted.
When smoke from California’s deadliest wildfire blew into downtown Sacramento last November, daylight blurred into dusk and the city’s air became among the world’s most polluted. The Camp Fire has long since been extinguished, but the health effects from the tiny particulate matter in the smoke, which penetrates into the lungs and ultimately into the bloodstream, could linger for years.
No one is surprised when smoke brings a surge of emergency room visits for asthma or other breathing problems. More insidiously, people are also inhaling noxious fine particles measuring less than 2.5 microns, or a fifth the size of a particle of dust or pollen. Researchers have had a hard time quantifying exposure to those tiny particles as a smoky plume moves through an area or just how harmful the bursts of such air can be. But recent work suggests that children and babies are particularly vulnerable to long-lasting health effects.
A new study found exposure to high levels of that tiny particulate matter, abbreviated as PM2.5, impairs the immune system of children. The Stanford University researchers tested the blood of 36 children exposed to wildfire smoke blown into Fresno in 2015 and found changes in a gene involved in the development and function of T cells, an important component of the immune system. The alteration made the gene less capable of producing T regulatory cells, potentially putting the children at greater risk of developing allergies or infection.
Read more at Wired
Photo Credit: skeeze via Pixabay
