The Decibel - The people most impacted by wildfire smoke

Episode Date: July 24, 2023

Cities across Canada have been dealing with the impacts of wildfire smoke this year – the smoggy skies and health effects. And while we’ve been seeing more smoke in big cities, remote Indigenous communities often bear the brunt of the negative effects of wildfires. Since 1982, 98% of smoke-related evacuations have been in Indigenous communities.Dr. Nicole Redvers is an associate professor at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at The University of Western Ontario and an expert on the impact of forest fires on Indigenous communities. She joins us to discuss the consequences of this year’s unprecedented wildfire season.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at [e-mail]

It's hard not to forget. It's one summer where we had 43 days, which were above the recommended air limits set by the WHO or the World Health Organization. And there was days that summer where in the middle of the afternoon, it would be almost like nighttime. It was so dark. Ash was falling from the sky. It was unbelievable, almost apocalyptic. Dr. Nicole Redvers was in the Northwest Territories in the summer of 2014, during what they called the Summer of Smoke. I have vivid memories of that summer because my kids were still quite young. And the decision about whether or not to go outside every day was the big one because it meant

being engulfed in smoke. Much of Canada has been feeling the impacts of wildfires this year, the smoggy conditions and health effects, but Indigenous communities are often bearing the brunt of Canada's wildfires and the smoke from them. Dr. Redvers is an associate professor at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario and an expert on the impact of forest fires in Indigenous communities. She's from the Dene Nukwe First Nation in the Northwest Territories. Today, she tells us how Indigenous communities are experiencing this year's unprecedented wildfire season. I'm Maina Karaman-Wilms, and this is The Decibel from The Globe and Mail. Dr. Redvers, thank you so much for joining me today.

Happy to be here. We know that this year has been a brutal season for wildfires already. But what have you been hearing and seeing this year from Indigenous communities in particular? It's been a tough go. And I think one of the realities is, in one case example, is the Katlodeche First Nation up in the Northwest Territories around the area where I grew up. And this year, we had a forced wildfire evacuation. Half the structures on one end of the town were burnt,

including homes as well as the Dene Cultural Institute, which houses all of our Dene cultural items and repositories, as well as the band office, the First Nation band office as well. But what was incredibly impactful was that a lot of the elders homes in particular that had burned during this wildfire were actually still being repaired from once in a lifetime climate related flood from last spring, almost one year exactly before the wildfire hits. So it was, you know, just a compound of another environmental event that occurred for this community, which, you know, as you can imagine, was quite stressful for community

members, but also, you know, a lot of wonder and concern about what the future was bringing during this event and what this is going to mean for the future of families and for the communities, which is something I've heard not only in the Calif, the first nation, but in many nations that have had similar effects across the country. So this is something that you're you're hearing about kind of like all across Canada, then not even in one contained part, but really across the country, as you say. Absolutely. It's, you know, very hard this year to say, oh, this area has been most affected by wildfires or this geographic area has been more affected. It's been a huge band right across the country of impacts, which is something that has occurred to some extent, but nowhere near the effects today and very similar

voices of concern coming from right across the country. And so what are the biggest impacts on a community? So when a wildfire is coming close to that territory, what are the things that are, I guess, impacting people the most? Yeah, well, there's two components to that. And I think the, you know, they need to be somewhat separated, but they are interconnected. One is the actual risk from the fire itself, the flames coming upon communities, which thankfully we have a lot of fire resources that are able to be mobilized. Of course, they've been incredibly stretched this year, so sometimes it's difficult to be able to target and priorities need to be set. But ultimately, I think the most impacts that come are from the smoke,

which means you don't even need to have a fire necessarily close by. Just by living in the boreal forest and the amount of concentration of the burns, that is the thick smoke that is higher risk in my mind because it is it's affecting broader, higher numbers of people comparatively to the actual flames, risking structures and buildings themselves. And we've seen smoky skies even in the southern part of Canada this year, right? Big cities like Toronto, Montreal have been really affected. How does that compare to what communities have seen further north? Like how bad can the smoke get up there? Well, in my mind, sometimes it's hard because it's not necessarily about the visibility of

the smoke. It's the amount of particulates that are in the air because that tends to have the greatest impact on the health and well-being of communities. But it also depends on what's burning in that smoke, if it's natural combustion materials or whether or not it's building structures, you know, which can include a lot of chemicals, the acridness of the smoke. So it can really vary. But having been in the north during smoke times and also during the south during smoke times depending you know it can be very similar I've definitely seen higher concentrations thicker smoke the ash is something that I've found more up north I haven't seen that when I've been in other smoky areas down

south I joke about the and joke in not a very funny way about the sun smoke because you know there's a look to the sun that happens when it's smoky outside. It's this very like reddish kind of hazy sort of color, I guess, like a red, red sun. And that's just becoming a norm in the summers now up north. And you don't really see that down south. It literally changes the view of the landscapes. Yeah. And you mentioned the particulate matter, which can be quite dangerous and something I hadn't really thought of, right? It depends on what is burning. That affects what you're breathing in as well. But how dangerous are we talking? I guess we see like air quality index markers. We're familiar with that. Can you give us a sense really of what we're talking about here?

Yeah. So the problem with wildfire smoke comparatively to other combustion materials that come out of, for example, automobiles or cars, is that the particular matter is quite high. And anything that goes below about 2.5 microns or PM 2.5 are so small that when we breathe, the particles can be embedded into our deep lungs, absorbed into our bloodstream, and even cross into our blood-brain barrier, which means not only effects of the lungs for conditions like asthma or COPD, but also for systemic inflammation, which can affect risks of cardiovascular disease as well as others. But frankly, we don't have a lot of good appreciation about the long-term impacts of fire smoke. There has not been a lot of research that's done. In fact, Canada is one of the few countries that doesn't have an environmental health institute as part of

its research infrastructure. So we're quite behind when it comes to knowing, okay, well, what happens if you have 43 days of smoke inhalation above levels? We have indications there might be impacts on preterm birth, perhaps on even things like cancers. But again, these are very preliminary. We just haven't put a lot of resources into understanding what the long-term impacts are of these fire-related events. Yeah, that's an important thing to remember, too, that it's really it's kind of an unknown in that way. Maybe we can just talk about the Air Quality Index for a moment here. Because I think I remember in Toronto, in particularly bad days, I remember us being at like a seven for air quality index. And that was difficult. I remember when I was outside, and I came in, I was like, Oh, my throat is hurting. And that's like, it was difficult to kind of get that

sensation away the entire day. Can you give us a sense of what kind of air quality where you're the northern parts of Canada would be experiencing? Yeah, so a couple days ago, we were 10 plus in Fort Smith, which is on the southern part of the, we were 10 plus in Fort Smith, which is on the southern part of the NWT, 10 plus on Norman Wells, which is the southern northwestern part of the Northwest Territories, and as well as Yellowknife, which is the northern part. So this is dispersed on an area twice the size of France, all experiencing 10 plus air quality index levels in the last week. I think that's the top of the scale, isn't it? When you say 10 plus, it means it's skyrocketed past the top of the reference ranges.

So what does that mean for people who are living there? Well, the unfortunate thing is, is that the Northwest Territories, as well as many other northern regions in Canada, are primarily Indigenous populations. Indigenous populations and communities often have very unfortunate realities when it comes to housing situations. There's a lot of underfunding, so that means leaky homes, which means homes are not sealed well enough to be able to keep out smoke in many cases. There's usually a lack of ventilation as well as a lack of filtration. So we have a lot of communities that right now, this week, for example, are getting heat related warnings have to make a decision about whether or

not to be inside a hot home because homes up north are built to hold heat, it's cold weather. So this amplifies the heat issues in the house, you open your windows to get fresh air outside. And of course, you got 10 plus air index levels. So you have two situations now where the climate impacts of heat are colliding with the climate impacts of wildfire smoke, which makes for very difficult decisions for families in regards to the health related risks of both. Yeah, it's like one of these things that's a really difficult situation to be in because I know we're often told if there's air quality warnings to go inside and to breathe, you know, fresher air inside. But if you've got leaky homes and if you've got a really hot structure, I mean, there's no escape there. No, there's absolutely none.

And, you know, part of the problem, too, is we have a lot of overcrowding in our homes. There's higher rates of mold in First Nation communities as well in buildings just due to the poor building structure. So it's just the compounding effect, the amplification of some of these risk levels that definitely is quite challenging. And we don't really have a lot of places in my mind is ensuring that there's at least one safe space in communities that they can go to that has proper air filtration, HEPA filters, sealed buildings, so people can get a break from either the heat or from the smoke related events. We'll be right back. So without the option to go inside and get away from the smoke, this is where we often see people having to leave, right? Communities having to be evacuated. Do we have a sense of how often Indigenous communities have to evacuate? One thing we know for sure, based on data from about 1980 to 2021, is that 2% of smoke-related evacuations are for non-Indigenous communities, which means 98% of the smoke-related evacuations are for Stations communities.

So clearly there's a heavy burden on Indigenous communities dealing with smoke-related events. Wow. I mean, so what does it mean for people in these communities to have to leave? I mean, there's the physical side of this, but I imagine there's also the psychological toll too. Definitely. The risk of exacerbations of conditions like asthma and otherwise, many of these communities rely on small nursing stations. There's no physicians in communities aside from being on rotation. Some communities don't even on rotation. Some communities don't even have nurses. They have community health workers as well. So, you know, if folks are

experiencing exacerbations, it means being shipped out to larger centers like Yellowknife, for example, to receive care. So, you know, the decision is difficult and it's either sometimes deal with the issues and hope that things can be managed. Preventative, we're trying to encourage patients in many areas to make sure that they have adequate puffers available and things to treat their conditions so that, you know, they're not getting stuck in a place where maybe smoke rolls in and they're not prepared for the events. And then the mental and spiritual components. Indigenous peoples are deeply and ultimately interconnected to land and the nature bases around. So we look at trees and plants as if they're our relatives. And when our landscapes are burning, a lot of country cabins, hunting cabins have burned within the wildfires. These are places where families go for the respite of, you know, their cultural activities and being able to regain balance within their lives. So when these kinds of things are affected, it's very concerning for elders and community members on how we see the

future for our landscapes. Yeah, for sure. And I mean, it's a big thing to physically move to, you said they're kind of going to neighboring areas often, but it can be a big journey as well, especially in more remote places. How equipped are other communities to help people when they do come, especially if, you know, maybe they're also close to fires and smoke? So how equipped are they? Well, this year, again, just using Catlett-H.A. First Station as an example, the nearest evacuation site, main site was Yellowknife, which is about 500 kilometer plus drive around the lake to be able to go to. Most often it means opening up ice rinks, arenas, those types of things to large seal bedding. However, you know, one of the amazing things about community that I found is everybody often rises to the challenge. They come together, try to provide as much support as possible

to community members evacuating, but it's difficult. Imagine, you know, staying in an arena where you're mixed with many other families, the lights are always on, there's no real privacy involved. And then the other thing is, is that you can't work. Communities sometimes have to pay for hotel rooms and might not have money for that available. If you're not getting a paycheck, if there's not supports in place, then this can be, you know, an additional challenge and burdens on families.

Yeah, yeah, there's definitely there's sounds like there's a lot of challenges there. But but you did say something, though, about, you know, other communities welcoming people in. And I imagine there's there's people that are stepping up to help as well. Could you tell me a little bit about that? Like, what are we seeing on that front? Yeah, I think one of the most beautiful examples I saw was when community members were being forcibly evacuated to Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories. The Yellowknife's Dene First Nation, which is the first nation that Yellowknife resides on, came and offered drum dances, brought their drums and sang for community. They, you know, they had all the community members dancing within the evacuation center. It was just a great way that, you know, one of the First Nations in the area welcomed in others with

ceremony and trying to uplift spirits and bring people together during this time. There's something when you come together in a cultural way for communities in support that I think was really uplifting for a lot of people. Yeah. This might seem like a basic question, but I think maybe let's unpack this a little bit, Nicole. Why is it that Indigenous communities are feeling the biggest impacts from wildfires? Well, Indigenous peoples globally steward 80% of the remaining biodiversity on the planet, which means that they live in closest proximity to nature. And because of that, when wildfire events or environmental events occur, of course, when you live most close to nature, it's higher likelihood that you're going to be affected. But a lot of these communities' lives are completely interconnected to the natural

environments around, whether or not it's through their hunting cycles, fishing, you know, gathering, being outside. It's unfortunately an expected outcome that we see Indigenous peoples globally, therefore being at much higher risk for climate related events. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense when you explain it that way. I also want to ask about resources available to Indigenous communities. You mentioned before fire resources are being kind of pulled thin with the impact of the wildfires nowadays. Is there a concern that communities don't have the resources or the infrastructure to help mitigate the impact from the fires? This is a real hot-button issue right now. And I think Canada is very behind in terms of its adaptation strategies overall.

Speaking in the north, generally, of course, it's not only the wildfire events, but floods and the melting of permafrost, which is going to significantly affect the structural integrity of many buildings, yet we have very little planning in place because of a lack of resources to be able to do that. We've seen fires that have occurred where there's been a delay in fire capacity being able to be mobilized to the community because the firefighters were busy on other fires. So it's this delicate balance that I think is going to continue unless we have a really concerted effort to mobilize quickly our adaptation strategies across the country, because climate change is not going away. And we have not done nearly enough that we need to,

to be able to prepare for the events to come. Yeah. So wildfires is one part of all of this, but it sounds like from what you're saying, floods, melting of permafrost, extreme heat, these are actually other effects of climate change that are really impacting things up there too then. Absolutely. It's very much holistic impacts overall. The North Subarctic and Arctic regions are warming at four times the global rate comparatively to any other area on the planet. So we've been seeing changes up there for decades. And that's why the events that are happening in this summer are not surprising to many, because many elders have been talking about this for years, warning about the changes coming that they've seen. Because when you live close to landscapes, I often give the example, you know, if you have an office, and something all of a

sudden goes missing there, you notice it because you're in your office all the time, you know, what's supposed to be there. It's the same thing with people that live in these forests. When something changes, you know, because you know that forest very well. It's a sad state of affairs. I wonder, though, now that big cities are seeing the impact from wildfires, when you have people in Toronto and New York really noticing, you know, smoke in the air, do you think that could cause any sort of maybe change in how we handle these events in the future? I hope so. I think, you know, it's an unfortunate reality sometimes with the human species that until you suffer and you feel the effects, it's hard to appreciate or the intensity of the events this year that will continue, that people will start to wake up to realize this is not just something that we can leave

to 10 to 15 years in the future for our children and for our grandchildren. Yeah. What happens for these communities as more climate events like wildfires keep happening? I mean, is there anything that we can look to as a potential solution or at least something that could help mitigate the situation? Well, there's been a lot of advances and discussions, of course, around what adaptation and mitigation means in the context of the climate crisis. And we know very well, of course, one of the strongest mitigation efforts is the absolute cut out of fossil fuels, which, of of course has become a very political question. But ultimately, if we're not dealing with the cause of the problem, then we're just putting band-aids trying to cover wounds here and there that are not really healing. So ultimately, in our Indigenous communities, we often talk very clearly about the balance needed within Mother

Earth and the things that we need to see change, which is going back to understanding that without a healthy environment, humans can't be healthy. It's just as simple as that. Take care of the land, and the land will take care of you. Adaptation, however, is another strategy. And I think governments and organizations, speaking the fact that we don't even have a research institute in Canada, you know, to be able to understand the health impacts of things like climate change is a huge issue. And if we're not putting resources to be able to develop evidence-based solutions for how to be able to appropriately manage not only the health impacts, but also the structural impacts, we're going to be struggling as a society because we're making decisions on the whim

instead of based on good process and evidence being thought through. Nicole, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. Masi Cho. Thank you. That's it for today. I'm Mainika Raman-Wells. Our summer producer is Nagin Nia. Our producers are Madeline White, Cheryl Sutherland, and Rachel Levy-McLaughlin. David Crosby edits the show. Adrienne Chung is our senior producer. And Angela Pachenza is our executive editor.

Thanks so much for listening, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.