And with a million of people in the US living
with air quality alerts like you and I have been talking
about yesterday and today many of us have safety concerns and
a lot of questions joining us now to discuss this is
Manga
Naman,
senior Vice president and Director of Critical Care Services at North Well Health.
Good morning. Welcome to the show. How toxic is the air and how worried should we be?
The air is pretty toxic?
I think New York had the worst air quality in the world yesterday,
which is pretty bad.
Um And I I think this is very temporary, obviously.
So I don't think we should be overly worried,
but I do think that we should take precautions and
you know, be aware of the situation.
Ok. So what sort of major health effects should people experience here?
And, and what should they be looking out for here with these,
with these circumstances here?
I think the people who really should be
concerned are people who have underlying lung disease,
asthmatics, patients with C O P D or emphysema,
chronic lung conditions, chronic heart conditions
to really be uh careful, stay indoors close your windows,
keep your air conditioning on.
I think everyone else limit your time outside.
If you are outside for an extended period of time,
try to wear a mask just to filter out any particles that you can
and just, you know,
be aware that you're outside and the air is terrible
and that you should not stay out too long.
You don't want to really exercise outside at all
because the more you're taking deep breaths in,
the more this is gonna get into your lungs and cause irritation cause coughing,
sore throat.
Um Things like that.
So just to avoid exposure as much as possible, what about Children and pets?
For example, and babies,
I wouldn't take pets for long walks, uh short,
short periods of time and back inside and
babies are vulnerable just as older people are.
So just to limit their exposure outside as well.
They, they, they have really fast respiratory rates.
Um So they're taking a lot of air in at one time and, and, and really um
limit their time outside as well. So
be aware, really stay inside is, is the key and, and this should be short lived.
They think that by tomorrow things should be better.
A lot of our health officials are saying stay indoors,
don't go outside as much as possible.
Uh What are you for those who can stay indoors? What's your top piece of advice there?
Wear a mask. Uh Definitely a good quality mask, something like an N95 or A K 95.
Really?
These are small particles, they will get into your lungs, they will irritate them.
So if you have to be outside for extended periods of time,
uh that's the key is to wear a mask and any concerns about long term health risks.
I don't think so.
I think the, the only people that really would,
would have some long term effects or have more
effects would be people who have underlying chronic disease.
This could exacerbate an asthma attack or AC O P D emphysema attack.
So those people really, uh, should be extremely cautious, but for the rest of us,
this should be short lived and
should not cause long term health effects,
air pollution from the smoke obviously makes breathing difficult
for pretty much anybody but those with asthma.
What sort of advice do you have for,
for those or any other underlying breathing effects that they have?
Yeah, definitely.
Take your inhalers, take your medications, um,
be cautious of your symptoms if you're starting to feel short of breath,
having trouble breathing, you know, seek help, uh, call your doctor,
get a tele visit in,
um, get, get to the hospital if you need to,
but definitely don't ignore your symptoms.
They're real today, um, and limit your exposure obviously and wear a mask if you,
if you can,
uh, as much as you can when you're outside, a lot of useful information there.
Thank you so much to
Manga,
senior vice president and Director of Critical Care Services at North West North.
Well, health. Thank you so much for the context here.