Viewpoint: Forest Service burns pollute residents with smoke
Polly Pfister
It's time to put a stop to the Forest Service's reckless burning of our forests and stop them from continually choking us to death with their polluting smoke.
The agency's intentional burning of 330 forested acres just outside of Helena on April 9, which smothered the city and valley with thick, sooty, dangerously unhealthy smoke for three days, was simply unconscionable, and showed total disregard for the health of thousands of residents whose air was poisoned.
Unfortunately for Montana's residents, this burn is just one of countless such air-polluting forest fires the Forest Service has deliberately set in Montana and the West over many years. We, the poisoned Montana residents, must take it upon ourselves to stop this crap. A class action lawsuit against this rogue agency is probably our best bet for stopping the FS from continuing to choke us with deadly smoke pollution.
According to Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, and Doctors and Scientists Against Wood Smoke Pollution, wood smoke is the most toxic type of air pollution the average person ever inhales. Burning forests emit numerous airborne toxins, including tiny particles smaller than 2.5 micrograms (PM2.5). Such small particles are easily inhaled, enter the bloodstream, then penetrate organs and tissues, causing cancer and other serious health problems.
The EPA considers 300 micrograms of PM2.5 particles per cubic meter of air unhealthy. By 9pm April 9, the monitor at the base of Mt. Helena read 732 micrograms per cubic meter - extremely dangerous for thousands of residents trapped under the Forest Service's smoke. Particulate levels remained unhealthy through the next day as well. Even as rain fell on April 11, the air still smelled like smoke - wet smoke - because we were still breathing the FS's pollution 3 days later.
Brian Moench, MD, President of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment and Board Chair of Doctors and Scientists Against Wood Smoke Pollution, said this about the FS's polluting Helena burn:
"OMG, this is such insanity. PM2.5 levels of 732 will kill some at risk people outright. Any pregnant women exposed to this will have serious consequences to their poor baby. This event in Montana needs to be widely publicized for the outrage that it is."
It's time for us choking MT residents to put a stop to the FS's deliberate pollution of our air. A class action lawsuit based on the deadly health effects we continually endure because of the FS's intentional forest fires would be a good first step.
Polly Pfister lives in Helena.