Hannah Weinberger

“There are times where you just don’t breathe because you can’t.”

As fire season burns hotter for longer, more of the US’s ~1M firefighters face #Wildfires w/o respirators bc no model is approved to withstand demands of the job. I reviewed an unpublished draft NIOSH report suggesting manufacturers didn’t initially see enuf demand to merit designing these respirators.

Ty to sources for sharing re: how #smoke exposure creates “ticking time bombs” out of ppl protecting us: https://crosscut.com/investigations/2023/08/amid-heavy-smoke-wildfire-crews-work-without-practical-respirators

Amid heavy smoke, wildfire crews work without practical respirators

'There are times where you just don’t breathe, because you can’t.'

Crosscut
Aug 30, 2023 at 2:30amWeb
Show threadHannah WeinbergerSep 1, 2023

TYSM @samlmontano and @walthickey for including our piece about wildland firefighter respiratory safety in your newsletters!
1. Disasterology, about all things disaster: https://disasterology.substack.com/p/disasterology-august-2023
2. Numlock, about numbers in the news: https://www.numlock.com/p/numlock-news-august-31-2023-whopper

#wildfire #WildfireSmoke #AirPollution #JobSafety #Firefighters #Smoke #EnvironmentalHealth #FireSafety #Firefighting

Disasterology: August 2023

This newsletter is a compilation of recent disaster ~things~ that I think are cool, important, or otherwise of interest to people who are intrigued with disaster (broadly defined). There’s a little something for everyone! The State of Emergency Management is… Rapidly Checking Off Bingo Squares.

Disasterology
Show threadM.S. Bellows, Jr.Aug 30, 2023

@Trailanderror Wait, so you're saying the damp bandanas they told us to use for respiratory protection as USFS wildland fighters in the Eighties weren't fully effective?

Whoa.

Show threadCam-ba-lopeAug 30, 2023

@Trailanderror Fantastic article, thank you for writing this.

You capture the scope of the challenge very well. There's something to say about overcoming the fear of suffocating the first time you work on hot line.

Show threadHannah WeinbergerAug 31, 2023
@weatherprince Thank you so much for reading, and for your work!
Show threadJulesceltAug 30, 2023

@Trailanderror When I was a wildlands firefighter, we didn't have anything. We used cotton bandanas. Sometimes we'd have to wet them to help w/heat and heavy smoke. I don't think many of us thought respirators would be helpful given conditions; very long days, amount of terrain covered in a day, and being able to see.

Maybe todays technology has or could come up with something.

Show threadKinene⭐🐻Aug 30, 2023

@Trailanderror A thought for all those who dismiss the toxicity of #wildfires:

It is like breathing in the smoke from a chimney, all day, for days.

And every time a building burns, you are breathing in burned Formica countertops and/or plastics.

Think about it.

- fire evacuee, 2018 Mendocino Complex fire