15min reminds us that on Wednesday evening in the capital’s Panerių Street there was a fire a huge fire at the car dump – smoke hung over Vilnius, it is reported increased air pollution.
About the possible health effects of fire smoke and basic recommendations in the event of a fire nearby 15min said Irena Taraškevičienė, head of the Public Health Safety Department of the National Public Health Center (NVSC).
– A car scrap yard is currently burning in Vilnius, the fire is huge, there is a lot of smoke, could that smoke be dangerous for residents?
– It is very difficult to answer something so concrete now without knowing what is in that air, but apparently all of us who are exposed to one or another smoke at home or somewhere else, understand that it probably does not add to our health.
Smoke can contain a variety of substances and can have one or another effect. Such traditional substances are nitrogen oxide, there are carbon compounds, there are unburned complex hydrocarbons. Looking at what burns and what compounds are released, they can have a certain specific effect, or if there is a high concentration of chemicals, it usually causes us an acute effect – sneezing, coughing.
If you stay in that cloud for a longer time, symptoms of the circulatory system may appear, breathing may become difficult, or even heart problems may occur. Those symptoms can be various – both specific and non-specific. At the moment I don’t have information on what the air pollution is – what the level is and what the different substances are.
Žygimantas Gedvilas/BNS photo/National Public Health Center
– But perhaps you would recommend those who live nearby to take additional security measures?
– In all cases when something is on fire, our recommendation is the same – you don’t need to be in the smoke, you need to be in buildings and close windows, vents, turn off mechanical ventilation, if there is one, because if it takes air from the outside and there are no filters, then we simply we can pollute the indoor air.
By closing the openings through which the air from the outside can come in, we will, of course, reduce the concentration of those chemicals. At least indoor air can be protected from smoke for a certain period of time – not a few minutes, but several hours. It is likely that the fire will be extinguished and the smoke cloud will dissipate during this time.
– If, however, you really need to go somewhere, drive away, what would you recommend to the residents?
– If absolutely necessary… I don’t know what those urgent reasons could be at such a time. But we understand that in such a case, a mask would hardly help, because if there are large particles, then a mask can help, but if there are aerosols, they will successfully penetrate through that mask and enter the respiratory tract. And when you put that mask on, it’s harder to breathe, that breathing is deeper and you can inhale more substances that way. A respirator can partially help for a while.
In this case, if you need to go somewhere, it remains a car, in which, with the windows closed, you can quickly pass a certain pollution zone, but you have to watch in which direction that cloud of smoke moves. You have to try not to be at least in that cloud.
– What are the consequences of being in that smoke, near it, for a long time?
– We can only have that example, when the tire processing factory in Alytus was on fire – after some time, a study of human bio-media was carried out, it was not found that the firefighters, who have protective equipment, were affected in any way. But it is difficult to say whether one or another substance remained in the human body, which can be either in the fatty layer, or in the blood or urine, – such a long-term effect, at least in the case of Alytus, has not been fully proven. There were some amounts, but not much different from the general background.
Speaking in this case is difficult, because there is simply no information. We have to realize that in high concentrations, if you receive a certain dose of a chemical substance – there is a concentration and the time that you stay in air polluted with a certain concentration, then exactly that dose of the chemical substance can have an effect on health. As I mentioned, that effect can be specific to a certain substance, and there can be different consequences.
For example, especially for those who have health conditions, that health may deteriorate. If a person has diseases of the circulatory system, such as heart failure, it is understandable that the course of his disease may worsen if he spends longer in polluted air. It is difficult to predict because we do not know how long it will take and in what concentrations the pollutants are present. In all cases, all vulnerable persons – those with chronic diseases, the elderly, pregnant women, small children – must protect themselves as much as possible.
– Thank you very much for the interview.
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2024-03-29 05:50:57