B.C.'s Interior as well as the Lower Mainland are blanketed in wildfire smoke, and a health officer from the B.C. Centre for Disease Control says she's seen a spike in the number of people suffering from respiratory issues.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, the deputy provincial health officer, says the BCCDC has been monitoring how many ambulance calls there have been for respiratory issues, how many emergencies there have been for respiratory issues and how many people have picked up prescriptions for Ventolin, a rescue medication for asthma.
She says some communities in the province have seen 20-50 per cent more respiratory issues than normal.
"We're seeing an increase in all of those. People are having issues with both heat and air quality," she said.
The air quality across the province has suffered due to smoke circulating in the air. As of Saturday afternoon, Kamloops had a rating of 13 according to the BC Air Quality website. Vancouver had a rating of seven.
Anything over 10 is considered a very high health risk.
Henry says that the people who are most vulnerable to the health effects of poor air quality are very young children, elderly people, people with heart or lung disease and people with asthma.
She recommended those people avoid the outdoors and seek out indoor, air conditioned spaces like malls or recreation centres.
"Keeping hydrated is incredibly important," she said. "It helps the body deal with heat and poor air quality. Water is your best friend."
Darnelle Moore leads running clinics in Vancouver, but she cancelled her Saturday clinic on Aug. 5 because she was worried about the smoke.
"Personally, I can taste the smoke in my mouth and I don't think it's a good idea to breathe it any deeper into my lungs than I have to," she said.
She was going to hike up to St. Mark's Summit with her family later too, but the smoke would render the usually spectacular view inscrutable.
"Even though it's disappointing… we're not in danger as other communities in B.C. are," she said.
Kevin Skrepnek, chief information officer with the BC Wildfire Service, says the province is in for more of the same hot and smoky weather.
"The situation, in all likelihood, is going to get worse before it gets better," he said, speaking to the busy firefighting month ahead.
The earliest the Lower Mainland could see reprieve from the smoke is between next Thursday and Saturday, when Skrepnek says winds will likely return to normal and blow in from the ocean, pushing the smoke further inland.
