The haze that’s blocking out the mountains, blue sky and even the sun across much of Colorado is full of tiny particles that are about 1/30th the width of a human hair.
They’re coming from the “biomass combustion” of wildfires in Colorado and California, and they’re so small that a mask will not stop them from going down our throats and deep into our lungs. Once there, they settle into the air sacs that get oxygen to the bloodstream.
The fine particulate matter is the reason the air quality in Denver has been worse even than Los Angeles and New York, Beijing and Kolkata, India. Every day for going on two weeks, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has placed the Front Range on an “action day alert,” meaning the particulate matter and ozone in the air is unhealthy to breathe. The worst of the air stretches from Douglas County on the south end to Larimer County up north.
It means even healthy people should limit their time outside. And people with asthma, other respiratory diseases or cardiovascular issues should pretty much stay inside with the windows shut and the air conditioning turned on, health officials said Monday.
Denver and surrounding towns spent the weekend choked by wildfire pollution, climbing into the red zone of the Air Quality Index, a measurement created by the Environmental Protection Agency. The scale goes from a healthy green all the way to a dangerous maroon. Red is considered unsafe even for healthy people.
Colorado’s poor air quality feels like one more blow after a long five months of quarantine and social distancing — one that is causing some people added anxiety.
The symptoms of inhaling too much wildfire smoke — headache, cough and a throat that feels like you smoked cigarettes — are somewhat similar to symptoms of COVID-19. The virus affects people differently, but the telltale signs a person should get a coronavirus test are typically fever, and, oftentimes, gastrointestinal symptoms.
“There is some overlap,” said John Putman, who is director of environmental programs at the state health department. “You can have a scratchy throat both for the smoke and for COVID.”
Staff writer Jesse Paul contributed to this report.
