Add another essential hiking item - N95 mask for wildfire smoke?

[RememberSchiff]

Last summer I wore my covid N95 mask while hiking in the Northeast which was often engulfed  by Canadian wildfire smoke. I actually preferred hiking in air-cleansing rain.  I haven't used  a mask yet hiking this season but still pack one. Note story of Pacific Crest Trail hikers.

Already this year, 26 wildfires have burned along the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), which travels along the spine of California, Oregon and Washington and has long been considered one of America’s spectacular thru-hikes. 

The blazes have forced 16 parts of the trail to close, leaving hikers hastily arranging rides around them. 

... a 2022 thru-hiker, was forced off the trail near Stehekin, Washington, after she developed a hacking cough, headache and sore throat from three days of hiking through smoke. 

“My lungs felt full of liquid,” she said. This year, she returned to complete her missing miles and ended up hiking 17 miles in an N95 respirator. Then, a new fire left her 30 miles short of completion and yearning for closure.

The source below notes climate changes  along PCT which travels through the Mojave Desert, the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Range.

Source (research and writing  👍😞

Wildfires keep hitting the iconic Pacific Crest Trail, forcing closures and evacuations

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/wildfires-pacific-crest-trail-closures-evacuations-rcna167863

BSA Hiking - 10 Essentials:

https://www.scouting.org/health-and-safety/safety-moments/hiking/

 

Edited August 24 by RememberSchiff

[scoutldr]

I retired after a 40 year career in Occupational Safety and Health.  The past few years of mask mandates from the "experts" have been a joke.  A respirator (mask), unless it's NIOSH approved and tested, properly sized and fitted (with NO facial hair) is useless.  There is NO respirator designed for children or those with very small features.  They are designed to fit most working adults.  The attempts at "protection" using cloth gaiters, plastic face shields, surgical masks, dust masks, etc, were not only useless, but imparted a false sense of security especially when worn with beards..  In a fire situation, the environment is considered "immediately dangerous to life and health" (IDLH) and  NO negative pressure respirator is acceptable protection.  While an N95 may filter out large particulate matter, it does nothing for the carcinogenic gases, vapors and lack of oxygen present around fires.  

My best advice for those in fire country...stay home.

Edited August 25 by scoutldr
sentence syntax

[RememberSchiff]

15 hours ago, scoutldr said:

....

My best advice for those in fire country...stay home.

Thanks. I'm a couple thousand miles from the western US and Canadian wildfires and am still affected by the smoke. 

The climate change effects: increased wildfires,  heat waves, flooding, wind, high bacteria counts at  beaches, ...are definitely negatively impacting scOUTING,

my $0.02,

Edited August 26 by RememberSchiff

[RichardB]

https://www.airnow.gov/ check where you are anytime.