Lung Association: If You’re in Brooklyn, Stay Away From BQE, Go to Beaches, Prospect Park
By Raanan Geberer
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BROOKLYN — In the last two days, as anyone who has been outside knows, the city has been in the midst of a severe heat wave, with temperatures searing into the nineties.
What people may not know is that the heat is accompanied by poor air quality. According to the American Lung Association’s State of the Air 2007 report, short-term particle pollution has risen in Brooklyn.
As for ozone, the other deadly air pollutant, the city as a whole remained on the Top 10 list for cities with the worst ozone pollution, although figures for Brooklyn specifically were not available.
And ozone is specifically linked to high temperatures. “Ozone is a searing gas — it burns our lungs,” says Louise Vetter, CEO of the Lung Association of New York City. “In Brooklyn, the areas closest to large highways are particularly dangerous to the residents. If I lived in Brooklyn, I would stay away from those areas and go to the beach or Prospect Park.”
Among those people most at risk from the combination of weather and poor air quality are the very young, the very old, and those with respiratory diseases such as asthma and emphysema.
“Generally, on days like these, the weather doesn’t usually affect people with perfectly healthy lungs. It’s more people who have some kind of underlying condition. Today, there is enough particulate in the air and enough small particles that you’d be breathing it in,” says Kathy Garrett-Szymanski, respiratory therapist and asthma care coordinator for Long Island College Hospital.
Still, according to Andrew Troisi of the city Office of Emergency Management, which is monitoring heat-related 911 calls and emergency-room admissions, “we have not seen any large spikes” in ER visits. One reason may be the OEM’s opening up of temporary “cooling centers” throughout the city, most of them senior centers and community centers where people who feel the effects of the heat can stop in and rest in an air-conditioned atmosphere.
“We saw about 25,000 individuals visit cooling centers yesterday,” said Troisi, who acknowledged, however, that some of those people may have been regular visitors at the senior and community centers. “We encourage people during the sun’s peak hours to avoid strenuous activity, drink fluids, especially water, avoid beverages with alcohol and caffeine [which are diuretics].”
Several other Brooklyn health experts made similar comments when queried by the Eagle. Dr. Anthony Salehr, a pulmonary doctor with New York Methodist Hospital, said, “We have many asthma patients whose condition is exacerbated by the warm weather. We tell them to stay in a cool indoor temperature, not brave the heat, make sure they’re well-hydrated and drink plenty of fluids.”
Asked for a comparison between this heat wave and previous ones, he said, “This is a little worse than average, but not a lot worse.” He couldn’t say whether this was an example of global warming.
David Spierer, assistant professor of sports sciences at Long Island University, said, “You need to be drinking fluid about 24 hours before you go out, until the time you go out … The best thing is to drink water or to drink something a little bit sugary, Gatorade, for example.
“If someone has severe asthma or exercise-induced asthma,” he added, “most of the reason that they experience difficulty is that their bronchials start to dry up due to lack of moisture. For severe asthma, you need to stay inside; for exercise-induced asthma, you need to take your bronchodilator [before any physical activity in this weather].”
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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