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Jane: This is But Why: A Podcast
for Curious Kids from Vermont

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Public. I'm Jane Lindholm, and
we're back today with a quick

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bonus episode in between regular
ones. It's a beautiful day here

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in Vermont as I'm recording
this. The sun is shining high up

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in a bright blue sky, and fluffy
clouds are floating by, and the

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mountains in the distance are
crisp and dark against the

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horizon. But I have to say,
that's not how it's been for a

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lot of the summer here in the
northeastern United States,

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where But Why is based. The past
few years have brought us an

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atmospheric phenomenon that we
didn't really have all that much

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experience with, until recently.
Super hazy days where the sun

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looks pink and the sky is a
blanket of gray and you can't

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even see the mountains. The haze
is caused by wildfire smoke that

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has been blown into our region
from forest fires hundreds or

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even thousands of miles away,
often in Canada. Depending on

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where you live in the world, you
might have experienced this

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phenomenon recently, too. Back
in 2020, we made a whole episode

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about wildfires called "What
happens to the forest after a

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fire?" We'll link to that
episode in the show notes. But

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today's episode isn't about the
forests or even the fires. We

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wanted to pop in to help explain
how smoke can travel so far and

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why so many communities around
the country and the world are

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seeing these extra hazy days
lately. Plus, we'll talk a

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little bit about how to stay
safe and healthy if air quality

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levels are an issue where you
live. But before we start, we do

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want to say we know some of you
live much closer to forest

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fires, and some of you have even
experienced them. That can be

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really hard and sometimes scary.
Our episode from 2020 includes

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conversations with some kids
who've told us a little bit

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about what that's like. But for
today's special episode, to help

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us understand the way smoke
travels, we called up Joel

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Thornton, a professor of
atmospheric and climate science

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at the University of Washington.

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Dr. Joel Thornton: So when
forests are on fire, it's

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injecting a lot of little tiny
particles into the air, and

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those then can travel great
distances and cover large parts

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of the landscape. So when it
looks smoky or hazy, it's

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because there are little, tiny
particles in the air that are

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like, like grains of sand you
might find at the beach, but

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even smaller, that are basically
blocking the sun from getting to

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our eyes.

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Jane: Professor Thornton says
these particles are made of

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many, many thousands of
different molecules and

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combinations of different
elements. But mostly they're

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made of what scientists call
carbonaceous materials, little

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particles of trees and leaves
and other material that have

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been burned by the fire and are
light enough to rise up into the

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atmosphere.

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Elliot: My name is Elliot, and
I'm seven years old, and I live

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in Camas, Washington. How far
does smoke travel?

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Dr. Joel Thornton: Yeah, it's
kind of blows my mind every time

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I think about it, how fast the
air is moving. If I could hold

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on to a little of pack of air
for a minute and let it go, that

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packet could go around the earth
in about two weeks. Fires in

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Canada, for example, within just
a few days, can be from the

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western part of Canada all the
way into the eastern part of the

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United States, and fires in
Siberia in eastern Russia or

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pollution created in Beijing in
China, that can be blown across

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the Pacific Ocean in the matter
of a week or so and end up

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impacting places in North
America.

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Jane: When Professor Thornton
says fires can travel across the

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continent in just a couple of
days, he means the smoke

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particles, not the fires
themselves. But why do these

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smoke particles travel so far
when smoke from your campfire or

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your wood stove doesn't travel
far at all? The intense heat

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from wildfires pushes smoke much
higher into the atmosphere than

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smoke from your campfire could
get. The smoke gets so high,

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maybe as much as five miles
above the Earth, that it floats

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into the jet stream. The jet
stream is a band of strong air

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current moving west to east
around the world. So when soot

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from wildfires gets up into the
jet stream, it can get blown

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across the continent in a matter
of days. Plus, when wildfires

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are burning, they're often very
big, and there's a lot of smoke

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getting into the atmosphere, so
it's much more noticeable than

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smoke from a smaller fire would be.

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Theo: My name's Theo. I'm from
Madison, Wisconsin. I'm three

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years old. Why does so many
smoke in the air?

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Jane: There's more smoke in the
air, primarily, because

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wildfires are burning more
forests than they used to. But

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why are fires getting more
intense?

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Dr. Joel Thornton: This is a
really important question, and

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one that many scientists are
trying to understand and study

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right now is what is happening
to the frequency of wildfires,

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the intensity? So in other
words, when a fire starts, how

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big does it get? How long does
it go on for? How are those

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properties of fires changing?
One of the big considerations

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right now is that the Earth is
warming. The Earth's sort of

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average weather is changing, and
it's getting warmer. And warmer

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air basically causes trees and
the ground to dry out faster. So

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when it's warmer, the air just
sort of sucks up the water from

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these things. So like when we
are in dry desert, our skin gets

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really dry and, you know, we get
thirsty because we're losing

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water to the the atmosphere. The
atmosphere is very hungry for

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water in these conditions, and
so it takes up the water, and

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that causes these materials just
to be more ready to burn. So

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then what starts those fires can
be natural. So a lightning storm

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can happen, and lightning hits
the tree, the tree catches on

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fire, and if that forest is
ready to burn, and you know, so

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drier than it normally would be,
it will burn more intensely and

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in over a bigger area. There's
also natural variations in the

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weather. That's just sometimes a
place gets drier for a summer

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than it typically does, and
that's not necessarily because

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of climate change. And then
there's also what we might call

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management practices, and so
we've, humans have really

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changed our relationship with
forests and with land over time,

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going back to when we started
clearing forests to make room

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for farms and agriculture.
That's been going on for really

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thousands of years, but also our
cities have been expanding

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outwards, so then there's both
changes in how we interact with

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the forest, but also changes
with how we've addressed

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fighting wildfires and/or
managing the forest to help

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prevent wildfires.

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Winston: Hello. My name is
Winston. I'm eight years old,

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and I live in Kaawa, Hawaii. Why
is smoke a bad smell, but

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firewood a good smell?

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Dr. Joel Thornton: Smell is a
very complicated science. You

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know, you'd be surprised at just
how one little difference in a

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molecule might change the smell
completely. Firewood that you're

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using to sit in your fireplace
at home, maybe it's a specific

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type of wood. It's probably very
dry, whereas wildfires, there's

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lots of things burning, things
like the dirt is literally

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burning in a wildfire. The dead
leaves on the ground, somewhat

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still living branches and trees
are burning. And that's not what

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you would normally put in your
fireplace. But I will say, if

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smoke from firewood in your
fireplace or smoke from a

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wildfire and both not good to
breathe. And you should, you

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know, try to avoid breathing
other kinds of smoke.

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Jane: Speaking of breathing,
we're going to talk a little bit

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about how we can stay safe
during wildfire smoke season.

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Stay with us.

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This is but why. I'm Jane
Lindholm. Before the break, we

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learned about how smoke travels
in the air and can reach us,

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even if we live far away from a
wildfire. Now we're going to

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talk about how we can stay safe
and healthy when the air feels

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hazy and thick.

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Dr. Gregg Furie: My name is
Gregg Furie. I am a primary care

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doctor. I also have a job as the
medical director for climate and

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sustainability at Brigham and
Women's Hospital in Boston.

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Jane: We have some questions
from kids about the health

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effects of wildfire smoke.

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Piper: My name is Piper. I'm
nine years old, and I live in

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Camas, Washington. Why is it bad
to breathe in smoke in the air?

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Dr. Gregg Furie: That's a great
question. In general, when we

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talk about smoke, we're talking
about something called

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particulate matter pollution.

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Jane: That's those teeny, tiny
particles in the air caused by

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wildfires and things burning.
That soot, or particulate matter

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pollution, is what's going up
into the atmosphere and making

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the air we breathe less clean.

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Dr. Gregg Furie: When people
breathe in particulate matter

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pollution, it can certainly
affect the lungs, but in fact,

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those really, really, really
small particles can get into the

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body and then can go on to
affect essentially any part of

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the body. And so that's
primarily how people get exposed

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to kind of the health effects
from from smoke is through

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breathing it in.

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Jane: One of those health
effects might be a tickle in

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your throat.

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Ava: I'm Ava. I'm seven years
old. I live in San Antonio,

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Texas. Why does smoke make you
cough?

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Dr. Gregg Furie: The main reason
that people will kind of cough

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when they're exposed to smoke is
because they're caught, these

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fine particles in the air cause
inflammation in the lungs. So

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that is your body appropriately
responding to these foreign

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particles through a process of
inflammation, but that can often

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trigger something like coughing.
It can also trigger symptoms

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like wheezing, a sense of your
chest feeling tight or shortness

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of breath.

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Jane: Generally, hazy days
aren't too much of a problem,

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but there are people who are
more vulnerable or more affected

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by polluted air who need to pay
extra special attention.

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Dr. Gregg Furie: People who have
lung diseases like asthma, or

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some adults who have something
called chronic obstructive

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pulmonary disease or COPD,
people who have heart conditions

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or health conditions that affect
their blood vessels, people who

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are very old or very young, and
pregnant women tend to be the

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groups that are at the highest
risk. And so, if someone is in

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one of those groups, then they
should know that they need to

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take kind of extra precaution.

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Jane: One way to know if air
quality in your region might be

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a problem is just to look at the
sky. You can often see smoke in

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the air because the sun looks
different and the sky isn't

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blue, even on a day when it's
not cloudy, and the buildings or

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trees look a little like they're
covered in fog or haze. But

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another way is to look at
something online called the AQI,

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the Air Quality Index. The US
government monitors air quality

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and lets you know what it's like
in your area by putting a number

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on it. The Air Quality Index
ranges from zero to 500. Zero is

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very clean air and 500 is very
polluted air.

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Dr. Gregg Furie: Once the AQI or
the air quality index goes above

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100 but it's less than 300,
people who are in some of the  

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more sensitive groups, those
people should be starting to

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think about how they're going to
take some precautions. Once the

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air quality index is going to be
going over 300, then everybody

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needs to be considering how
they're going to take some

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precaution.

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Jane: You probably don't need to
worry about the AQI. Your adults

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can help you keep an eye on air
quality in your region. They

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often hear about that on the
radio or TV, or on a weather app

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on their computer or phone or
watch. And they can help let you

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know if you need to slow down on
your outdoor activities or maybe

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wear a mask that can filter out
some of that pollution. Some

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people get special filters for
their homes or the buildings

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they work or go to school in,
too. And Dr. Furie says it's

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always good to check in with
your doctor if you're in one of

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those sensitive groups, so you
can have a plan if the air

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quality gets bad. Living with
wildfire smoke is a new reality

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for many of us, and your adults
might be navigating it for the

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first time, too. So maybe you
can make checking the Air

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Quality Index together part of
your routine during wildfire

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season. Thanks to Professor Joel
Thornton and Dr. Gregg Furie for

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helping us understand wildfire
smoke, how it travels and how it

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affects us. As always, if you
have a question about anything,

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have an adult record you asking
it on a smartphone using an app

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like voice memos or recorder,
then have them email the file to

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questions@butwykids.org. If you
like our show, please have your

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00:13:14,787 --> 00:13:18,450
adults help you give us a thumbs
up or a review on whatever

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00:13:18,512 --> 00:13:21,988
podcast platform you use to
listen to us. It helps other

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kids and families find us. But
Why is produced by Melody

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Bodette, Sarah Baik and me Jane
Lindholm at Vermont Public. Our

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video producer is Joey Palumbo.
Luke Reynolds wrote our theme

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music and we're distributed by
PRX. We'll be back next week

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with an all new episode. Until
then, stay curious.