Wednesday: Transport winds will primarily be from the north east today. This should keep smoke out of most areas of Siskyou County. For areas experiencing smoke, the worst smoke impacts will occur in the late evenings through the morning. Thursday: Transport winds will be primarily from the south west. Smoke intrusions into Happy Camp, the Scott and Shasta valleys should be expected with the worst impacts occurring over night.

Thanks to a reference list posted by the New York Times, I’ve also found a helpful government site for wildland fire support with real-time maps, plus the air is not so bad here around the base of Mount Shasta. The Air Quality Index (a federal standard that measures the weight of pollution particles per cubic meter of air) is currently 54, give or take a few particles. That’s called moderately healthy or unhealthy depending on how you like to look at a half full/empty glass of water. Keeping in mind that yesterday’s AQI neared 200, I’m liking 54 to half full.

For perspective on the present reading, we only have to turn the clock back to 1987: The multiple fires around Happy Camp, California created the worst air quality measurements ever seen by Eldon Beck, the Assistant Air Pollution Officer for Sisikiyou County. In not-so-Happy Camp, the air clocked in at over 1,200 micrograms of particulates per cubic meter which is four or five times the acceptable limit established by CARB (California Air Resources Board). Hundreds of micron-sized particles could fit on the head of this period. Any period…………………………………………………!

The minute size of these contaminants is why they burrow into lung openings and easily find their way into the blood stream of oxygen breathing creatures like you, your pets and me. Once inside, they overrun our systems (much the same as wildfire) making us more open to colonization by viruses, molds, bacterias etcetera. In plain language, we get run-down, irritable, slow thinking, peevish, melancholy, listless, splenetic and so on. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

That’s why I’m upping my intake of contaminant-fighting supplements, like Vitamin C. Linus Pauling would have. According to Pauling, one of the great misfortunes of human evolution was when our ancestors lost the ability to manufacture vitamin C. He thinks it happened back when there was cleaner air and humans already had “a diet of vitamin-rich plants and didn’t need to produce the vitamin themselves”. Whatever happened, “today’s primates (including humans) are one of the few groups of animals that must get the vitamin through the diet.” Period.

That’s also why officials who understand small particle pollution keep giving us advice: Stay inside, close the windows (not all the windows), turn on the airconditioner, restrict physical activity and so on. They can’t tell us to take more Vitamin C and other antioxidants. It’s just not in their contract, so I’ll tell you.

The air is not healthy at the moment. We don’t know when it will be again. The truth is, we need to refrain from breathing deeply. When tempted to exert yourself unnecessarily, remember this: How many gazillions of microns fit into one period? How many periods in a breath of smoky air? How many breaths are there in one 24 hour smoky period? How many 24 hour periods are in a smoky week? A month? Two? Three? A lifetime? Are you getting the picture?

If not, just ask. I’ll send you one, a real picture in the form of a colorful card, either blank or personalized. Choose one from my site or email me a photo you like. It’s really no trouble either way. A few clicks and I’ll have your picture made into a neat SendOutCard. Just think, one day in the near future you’ll open your snailmailbox and there it’ll be.

Laura signing off.

p.s. drink more water, too.