Lingering smoke and worries about poor air quality in Winnipeg left one organization making the difficult choice of cancelling outdoor activities on Wednesday night.
The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society in Manitoba chose to cancel paddle night on Aug. 16, with Environment Canada forecasting worsening air quality. This comes as a result of wildfire smoke from the Northwest Territories making its way to Manitoba. Here in the provincial capital, residents are contending with an ongoing special weather statement, with an overnight air quality index rating of seven.
At this level, people are advised to reduce or reschedule any strenuous outdoor activities.
Mira Oberman, director of communications and public programs with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, said the decision to cancel was made on Wednesday morning.
“We had 120 people registered – a sold out crowd of people looking forward to spending the night out on the river, having fun with kayaks and canoes and dragon boats. Unfortunately, with the combination of wildfire smoke and high winds, we had to make a call that it wasn’t safe,” said Oberman. She added that, as someone with asthma, she was horrified. Having to deal with a summer of fire smoke, it hasn’t been easy on her to try and enjoy nature and the outdoors.
“It’s absolutely horrifying to me that there are forest fires so intense that the smoke can travel 3000 kilometers from the Northwest Territories and still be so dense that I can’t breathe.”
The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service said a degraded air quality poses a number of risks, especially for those with any pre-existing conditions or vulnerabilities. Symptoms related to poor quality can include chest pain, light headedness, and shortness of breath.
They added that “given the risks of poor air quality, it is likely there are residents who may have experienced symptoms.”
Oberman said she worries the situation can get worse next summer. The culprit, she added, is climate change; an issue she wants to see acted on by province’s political parties.
“It’s really hard for event planners like us to figure out the right balance. We want to keep people safe. We want to also give people opportunities to get outside and enjoy summer,” said Oberman. “We plan ahead, we do our best, and then we have to make decisions day by day as to whether it’s safe to continue to do activities outside.”
Staying safe indoors
Along with outdoor safety, indoor air quality is also a concern in such weather conditions. That quality can be dependent on the type and state of an HVAC or furnace filter.
Tara Smith, general manager at Mr. Furnace, says a furnace works by taking in the air around it and pushing it back out after heating it up. A filter within the furnace ends up picking up all sorts of allergens, dust mites, dust, and even smoke particles.
The higher the MERV rating – which determines the level of restriction or efficiency of a filter, the more restrictive the filter is and the more particles are caught. According to Smith, a rating between eight and 11 is standard. And a good filter, she added, can mean good indoor air quality.
“If you have higher MERV numbers, they collect more of that smoke. If you live in a home where you have someone who maybe has compromised breathing ability, whether that be asthma or there’s a myriad of things that it could be, then you should be looking at a better filtration system than just the filter on your furnace anyways,” said Smith. “Just remember, the higher the Merv rating you go, the more restrictive it is, the more you have to be on top of changing it.”