Every Breath You Take…I’ll Be Choking You

The last two days here in Northeast Indiana have been low air quality. How low, you ask? Well, a normal AQI number around here is 45-50. That is Good to Moderate. We have a lot of allergens in the air around here; from mold spores to pollen to just people having burn piles. But despite all of that the air is typically pretty decent.

Yesterday at 6am when I got to work the AQI was 171, which is “unhealthy”. But in the afternoon it had gotten up to 221. As I walked into work Tuesday morning there was a very prominent electrical/chemical smell in the air. Next to my facility there’s a heat treat plant that essentially cooks a coating onto alloy wheels. When they’ve got the ovens up and running you can smell a hot, almost electrical smell that blows towards us. It’s one of those smells that when it hits your nostrils you take note quickly. I can’t imagine being in the same building as that process, especially how potent it is from a quarter mile down the road.

The last two days have felt like that dystopian, post-apocalyptic world I’ve seen way too many times in films since clear back in my childhood. A haze of northern smoke coats the sky, blocking any sort of direct sunlight. The air unseasonably cool, yet dank and humid still. And the accompanying smell that goes along with it gives you the urge to hold your breath when walking from vehicle to building. This is how 80s and 90s L.A. always looked on the TV. It seemed blanketed in a haze of overpopulation, car exhaust, and existential dread emanating from the city’s “Lost Angels”.

Our immolation haze is from the Canadian wildfires that have been going on since I believe April. New York was turned into Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 as a result of the fires two or three weeks ago. We’ve had some questionable air quality days because of the fires in the last few weeks, but never like this. Smoke traveling in the air stream from hundreds of miles away is now giving us our own little “Damnation Alley” moment right here in Northeast Indiana. This has been a great science lesson, as it’s showing me how one nuclear bomb could take out such a large swath of the country by allowing the nuclear and dust particles to travel in high altitude atmosphere and affect areas up to a thousand miles from ground zero. Eye-opening and completely horrifying.

I’ve felt the effects. At first I thought it was just allergies that were causing the heaviness in my chest and tightness in my sinuses. I had asthma pretty bad when I was a kid, but I grew out of the severity. Now the only time I have any asthma issues are when I’m around old, mildewed boxes or someone’s feline friend for a decent amount of time. But I haven’t been around a cat or spent any time in a wet, humid basement, and yet I’ve felt that heaviness in my chest. Now I know why. I’ve been living in a campfire haze for the last few weeks.

My 20-year old received the gift of asthma and allergies from me. She’s been using her inhaler a lot more the last couple months and now we know why. Well, the bad air quality AND her new pup that sheds might be a factor as well.

I’m hearing there’s going to be an improvement in air quality today. Wind shifts are going to push Canada’s smoke back up to them. I don’t wish bad air to my North American neighbors, but I have to say I’m feeling relieved from that information. Especially since we’ve got people coming over Saturday for an open house. I wanted the option for folks to hang out outside if possible, but not if we’re going to have to provide gas masks.

There’s also the cold, hard fact that if the wind shifts again we’ll be right back where we were unless those fires get put out. This is merely a temporary reprieve. An intermission from heavy lungs, wheezy breaths, and inflamed sinuses.

I’m not sure why I posted about air quality. I guess it’s just really bothering me. I went to the store after work yesterday and walking in the smell was overpowering, as was the chemical fog in the air. I’m looking around at people and I saw one or two older folks wearing masks. It made me wish I had a mask. But besides them, the rest of the people walking to and fro looked like it was just another day. No big deal; just dirty, dank air that makes my chest heft and squeeze harder than normal for some reason. Like they thought it was just normal fog that smelled like what I imagined the movie Silkwood would smell like. I called my mom on the way home from the store to make sure her and my dad weren’t doing anything outside. She said “Why?” I told her what was going on and she had no idea. No idea we were living in smoke, not fog. Said she was going to go out and mow, but said maybe she’d wait till Thursday.

I guess since air quality levels are on my weather app on my phone I’m more aware. And when I feel that heaviness in the air I’m always looking to see how high allergens are in the air. When air quality is at 171 at 6 am that’s worrisome to me. Call me a worrywart.

Here’s to that fire getting put out so my Canadian friends get some relief. And so the rest of North America gets some relief.