According to a 24-hour air quality monitor in the Borough Building in Soldotna the air quality as of May 27 was moderate, as opposed to May 26 which was unhealthy.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation stated that the Funny River fire will continue to impact the air quality along the Kenai Peninsula and will vary between “good” to “very unhealthy” depending on winds and fire behavior.
Environmental Public Health Program Manager Ali Hamade talked with us about the effects of low air quality.
Hamade: “Basically the recommendation are to the public in general, because, air pollution’s can be bad for everyone. Specifically those who can be more susceptible to the bad health effects of air pollution. And those include children, the elderly and those with heart and lung disease, like asthma, COPD, or any other cardiovascular disease. Those can be as higher risk and for those people specifically the advice is to limit to exertion, to limit heavy exercise, particularly outdoors cause that could effect their health in an adverse manner.”
The DEC stated that concentrations of smoke are usually higher in the early mornings.