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Gaps in rural B.C. air monitoring raise concerns as wildfire smoke health risks grow | CBC News
Health officials and advocates are raising concerns about gaps in air quality monitoring across rural B.C., saying some communities may be exposed to dangerous wildfire smoke levels if they don’t have access to accurate local data.
It comes as the health impacts of wildfire smoke are becoming clearer, and as new monitoring stations are being installed in parts of the province to address the gaps.
Air quality is typically monitored by federal and provincial governments and according to Environment Canada, 286 sites across every province and territory make up the National Air Pollution Surveillance program.
“Even with nearly 300 sites, there are enormous gaps in geography — often at the expense of rural and remote communities,” said Christopher Lam, president and CEO of the B.C. Lung Foundation. “Local pollution levels and their associated health risks continue to go largely undetected.”
Scientists say climate change has created longer fire seasons and drier landscapes, sparking more intense and widespread forest fires.
In some remote communities, families are already adjusting their daily lives around wildfire smoke.
Adapting to smoke
In Gold River, nine-year-old Roland Latimer makes sure to check air quality every day before stepping outside.
“If my lungs like close up, I could like lose breath and maybe even die,” says Roland, who has asthma and carries two puffers with him wherever he goes.
When air quality is poor in the Vancouver Island village, he’s forced to stay indoors.
“I feel very trapped when I can’t go outside because of my asthma. It’s really frustrating.”
For Roland’s family, access to accurate, local air quality information matters.
“Usually when it’s smoky outside, and I go outside, it makes me cough a lot,” he said.
The B.C. Lung Foundation installed several air quality monitors in the Vancouver Island community last fall.
“We did have an air quality monitor but it was like a hundred kilometers away, so it was not very accurate,” said Tricia Latimer, Roland’s mother. “Before … it was always a guessing game.”
Death of B.C. boy highlights risks
The monitors at Gold River are part of the legacy of Carter Vigh — the boy from 100 Mile House who was nine years old when he died from an asthma attack during the wildfire season in July 2023.
Known as the most destructive wildfire season on record, over 25,000 square kilometres of forest burned that year — sending toxic plumes across the province.
On Carter’s final day, his parents checked the Air Quality Health Index in the morning before he headed to the water park and a birthday party, with the reading indicating a low risk.
“We checked the air quality on our phone, not knowing that our closest air quality monitor was a hundred kilometers away,” recalled Carter’s mother, Amber Vigh. “If we had real time accurate air quality monitors … we might have stayed inside instead.”
Carter’s death has since become a catalyst for Amber and her family to improve air quality monitoring across the province.
The parents of Carter Vigh, a nine-year-old who died after a wildfire smoke induced asthma attack, have partnered with the B.C. Lung Foundation to provide personal air quality monitoring devices in rural communities.
They have partnered with the B.C. Lung Foundation to create Carter’s Project, which has installed about 20 outdoor air quality monitors across the province since May 2024, including in Gold River.
More are now being added at fire halls in the Cariboo region, including 70 Mile House, with additional communities expected to receive monitors this year.
Health impacts extend beyond deaths
Smoke from the record-breaking Canadian wildfires in 2023 caused an estimated 5,400 acute deaths and about 82,100 premature deaths worldwide, but health officials say those deaths represent only a fraction of the overall impact.
“When we’re talking about deaths, we’re taking the very tip of the iceberg of those health impacts,” said Sarah Henderson, scientific director of environmental health services at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. “Because for every death, there’s maybe five hospital admissions and 10 ER visits and 20 visits to the doctor and a hundred new prescriptions filled.”
Smoke from wildfires contains fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, which can travel deep into the lungs, she says.
“When it gets there, it causes irritation because it’s a foreign body in your lungs and it causes inflammation.”
Those particles can also enter the bloodstream and affect other organs.
Research points to broader risks
Chris Carlsten, director of the Air Pollution Exposure Laboratory at the University of British Columbia, is gathering data to provide insight into the ways poor air quality is harmful to human health and wellness.
“[The lab] is one of only a few places in the entire world where we can safely expose humans to air pollution in real time,” he says.
At the lab, participants spend two hours inside a controlled box where smoke is released, which Carlsten says is considered safe due to the small amount of exposure in the winter months.
He says research suggests wildfire smoke may be more harmful than other forms of pollution.
“It’s actually worse for the lungs than traditional traffic-related pollution,” he added. “We’re starting to see disease in the blood vessels themselves, and we’re even starting to see disease in the central nervous system or the brain.”
Health officials are urging people to take precautions including limiting outdoor activity during smoky periods and improving indoor air quality.
“It’s sad but it’s true most of us spend about 90 per cent of our time indoors,” said Henderson. “If the indoor air quality is clean, 90 per cent of our health is protected.”