Over the past few weeks, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality has been sending out air quality alerts for much of southern Idaho.
These Air Quality Advisories reflect the smoky skies and give us an indicator of just how bad our air quality has been thanks to wildfires burning in Oregon and Washington.
This week, in places like Boise, Canyon, Gem, and Payette counties, we’ve reached the Red or Unhealthy level of air quality. By definition, that means that some people may experience health effects and that “members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects.”
But what does that really mean?
Dr. Ethan Sims is an emergency room physician and executive director of Idaho Clinicians for Climate and Health. And for him, it means more patients are coming into the E-R, coughing and struggling to breathe, and some of those patients are babies and children.
Sims sat down with our George Prentice to talk about the human cost of all the smoke.
