“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 I reviewed an unpublished draft NIOSH report suggesting manufacturers didn’t initially see enuf demand to merit designing these respirators.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