Home in the haze: A first-hand report of staying safe while pregnant as smoke covers the sky
Right now, you can find me in my home office, working from the desk.
I'm pregnant, in my third trimester, and I'm following doctor's orders by staying inside. I live and work in Kingston and the air quality rating is particularly dangerous here.
Smoke from wildfires burning across both Ontario and Quebec blanket the skyline in Kingston, Ont., Tuesday, June 6, 2023. (Lars Hagberg/THE CANADIAN PRESS)
Experts say people like me with underlying health issues are particularly vulnerable right now. Older people, asthmatic people and people with heart disease or other respiratory issues are also at risk.
That's because the tiny particles in the air from the wildfire smoke can get into the lungs.
I spoke with Dr. Michael Fitzpatrick, a respirologist from Queen's University and Kingston Health Sciences Centre, who says for people like me who are pregnant, there is an increased risk of things like premature birth.
He says the advice for anyone with underlying health concerns is to stay inside.
"Stay indoors and avoid it if you can," he said to me. "Keep your windows and doors closed and if you have to go outside, ideally use a mask."
He says outside workouts should be avoided right now, but a quick errand is all right.
"The thing is not to be going out and spending a prolonged time in that exposure," he explained. "If you had, for some reason, to be out for hours, then wearing an N95 would be helpful."
Smoke from wildfires burning across both Ontario and Quebec blanket the skyline in Kingston, Ont., Tuesday, June 6, 2023. (Lars Hagberg/THE CANADIAN PRESS)
Dr. Samir Gupta, a respirologist who spoke to CTV News, explains just how bad the smoke is.
"Spending a day out there, breathing in these tiny particles, is not dissimilar to breathing in a half-pack of cigarettes," he said. "So, that’s the extent of what we’re dealing with."
I'm not alone. The poor air quality has led to an increase in visits to the emergency room in Kingston and elsewhere. Dr. Gupta says that it is especially bad for those with asthma.
"Those patients will know what the experience of a flare-up is, with tightness in the chest, shortness of breath, cough, wheeze," he said. "These are the kinds of things where they may have a plan on how to manage that with a provider, but if things get out of control, they may need to seek help and that’s what we see."
In the meantime, I'm keeping an eye on air quality updates.
Experts say once that improves, we can all get back to our normal outdoor routines.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.