Capital Region asthma, allergy experts talk health effects of wildfire smoke
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Your sinuses were probably already struggling through the start of allergy season. Now add to the mix a blanket of ash and smoke blowing in from Canada, and local doctors are flooded with concerned calls.
"You add wildfires to probably one of the worst seasonal pollen—tree pollen—allergies in history, it’s really complicating things," explains Dr. Gavin Setzen, president of Albany ENT.
Local experts say for allergy sufferers, your airways are already pretty sensitive.
"[The smoke] doesn’t really cause an allergic reaction, but if you have an allergic disease, that’s an inflammatory condition, so any little irritant is going to bother you more than it does the typical person," says Dr. Thomas Flaim of Certified Allergy & Asthma Consultants.
The tiny ash particles floating in with all the smoke can also complicate matters for asthma patients with similar sensitivity. Dr. Flaim suggests closely monitoring your medication intake.
"Use your rescue inhaler—your albuterol—and I would suggest that you use it three, four times a day for at least two to four days and then see how you respond to that," he explains to NEWS10's Mikhaela Singleton.
Dr. Setzen also adds his office has also gotten calls from Long COVID patients.
"Long COVID can be many different things to many different patients, but the concern would be those with lingering cough or any respiratory insufficiency, development of so-called ‘reactive airways’," he says.
They say the best thing to do is avoid being outside as much as you can until this all blows over, avoid strenuous activity that would labor your breathing such as outdoor exercise, and consider using a mask when outside, preferably an N95 mask that is well fitted to your face.
"Don’t do as much, take more breaks, get inside and into the air conditioning to give those lungs a break," says Dr. Flaim.
"Rinse your nose, gargle one’s mouth, change your clothes—just the way we would treat for pollen, for example," Dr. Setzen further suggests.