Once again, folks in the west are waking up to the all-too-familiar hazy skies of wildfire season. Cities in Oregon and northern California are feeling the brunt of two large blazes, and other states are getting smoke from fires in Canada, too. As air quality alerts continue to become a normal—albeit dystopian—part of life, it can feel easier to shove them aside and try to keep your day-to-day unchanged. However, experts say there is one part of your routine you should modify when air quality is bad: your exercise routine.
And while we can tell when the sky is hazy, the true quality of the air is not always apparent just by sight. A dive into air quality apps will give you the precise measurement of ground ozone and inhalable pollutants in your area.
Take the government-run site AirNow. Where I live in Seattle, Washington, the Air Quality Index (AQI) is “Good,” and I’m given a prompt to “enjoy your outdoor activities.” But 600 miles southeast in Boise, Idaho, the AQI is “Very Unhealthy,” and sensitive groups are advised to avoid outdoor activity, while everyone else should avoid “strenuous” outdoor activity.
The distinction, though slight, is important. Physical activity is very good for your health, but the wrong conditions can change that. And certain groups have an elevated risk.
“Exercise itself is protective,” says Steven Davis, MD, a pulmonologist and associate professor at the Burnett School of Medicine at Texas Christian University. “It’s this balance between, is it better to breathe in a bunch of crappy air, but get the benefits of exercise? Which is worse?”
Read on to learn more about what you can do about your outdoor activities.
How air quality impacts health
Air quality is affected by a number of things both natural (like decomposing organic matter and volcanic eruptions) and manmade (like vehicle emissions and power generation), according to the National Institutes of Health. AQI generally looks at three types of pollutants: ground ozone, and coarse and fine particles.
“The pollutants that you breathe in tend to cause a lot of reactions, particularly with oxygen in the body, and through those reactions create harmful byproducts,” says Dr. Davis. Those byproducts are called free radicals, and a buildup of free radicals is damaging to cells.
Free radical damage has been linked to a number of chronic health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, inflammation, cataracts, and cancer. In the short term, you may feel fatigued during periods of high pollution, have asthma flare ups, or experience reduced lung function. Studies show that emergency department visits and hospital admissions increase when outdoor air pollution is high.
“As we’re learning more about what pollution can do, there seems to be a pretty clear link with generalized inflammation in the body.”—Steven Davis, MD
“As we’re learning more and more about what pollution can do, there seems to be a pretty clear link with generalized inflammation in the body,” says Dr. Davis. “So that then impacts just about every organ system, every process in the body.” That includes an increased risk for diabetes and neurological disorders, he notes, on top of the increased risk for heart attack and stroke.
Air quality and exercise
On days when the AQI reaches an unhealthy level, you may hear your local news station or favorite weather app declare it an “air quality action day.” These are days when you’ll want to think about limiting “strenuous” outdoor activity.
But what counts as strenuous activity?
If you’re out running, hiking, or cycling, for example, you’re going to be inhaling even more pollutants as you breathe more frequently and naturally take bigger breaths.
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