Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,

where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges.

If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jh.h.edu.

That's public health question at jhhu.edu for future podcast episodes.

This is Lindsay Smith Rogers.

With huge parts of the eastern seaboard covered in thick, hazy smoke from Canadian wildfires.

We're re-releasing an episode from September 2020 with air pollution expert Dr. Kirsten Kolar.

In this episode, Dr. Kohler and Dr. Josh Sharfstein discuss how the massive West Coast forest fires

raging at the time were affecting people's health. Their conversation

about particulate matter and its impacts on respiratory health and how to protect yourself

is just as relevant today in yet another air quality emergency. Let's listen. Dr. Kohler,

thank you so much for joining me. These pictures of the fires on the West Coast

are just incredible.

And the pictures from San Francisco and other urban areas

where the sky is practically blotted out

are hard to believe.

What are the air pollution issues and the risks to health right now?

So when you have fires, you can have a variety of pollutants being emitted.

That can include most importantly particulate matter, which is what is leading to the degradation

and visibility that you're seeing, but also increases in carbon monoxide and ozone can be

observed as well.

And for the particulate matter,

...