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Here Are The Gadgets I Use to Protect My Family from Deadly Wildfire Smoke
And maybe Covid-19, too
If you live on America’s West Coast, you’ve probably bookmarked the air quality monitoring website PurpleAir by now. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where drifting smoke from historic wildfires has turned the sky orange, shuttered national parks and other outdoor spaces, and intermittently made our air quality the worst in the world.
Wildfire smoke isn’t just a nuisance, either — it’s a killer. As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, smoke from 2020’s wildfires has likely already killed 1,200 to 3,000 people. That’s orders of magnitude more than have died in the fires themselves. The World Health Organization says that air pollution cost 4.2 million lives worldwide in 2016 alone.
While it “can make anyone sick,” the CDC says, wildfire smoke is especially harmful to people with conditions like asthma or heart disease, as well as children, pregnant women, and first responders. It can even potentially exacerbate symptoms of Covid-19. Even if the smoke doesn’t directly sicken you, it may lower your productivity or cause physical stress (more on that below).
According to National Geographic, climate change, forestry management practices, droughts, and a variety of other factors mean that devastating fires are here to stay. Faced with a major yearly fire season and knowing the dangers of wildfire smoke, I wanted to find out how to keep my family safe. As a Californian and a technologist, I decided to find out what gadgets and technologies could help me reduce air pollution in my home.
As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, smoke from 2020’s wildfires has likely already killed 1,200 to 3,000 people. That’s orders of magnitude more than have died in the fires themselves.
According to the CDC, wildfire smoke is “a mix of gases and fine particles from burning trees and plants, buildings, and other material.” The smoke is harmful largely because it contains fine particulate matter. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that “fine inhalable particles” — those that are smaller than 2.5 microns, or 30 times…
