Air pollution in Fort Collins during the 2012 High Park Fire rivaled some of the worst days in places like Mexico City or Los Angeles鈥攚ell known for poor air quality.
That鈥檚 one of the key findings of a recently published study conducted by two Colorado State University scientists in the journal,
One striking difference came from comparing air quality samples taken before and during the High Park Fire. Study co-author and CSU professor of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences John Volckens says his findings back up suggestions from public health officials, who warned people last June to avoid going outdoors.
鈥淚t turns out that forest fire smoke is pretty potent stuff,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t can cause your eyes to become itchy, your throat to become scratchy. It鈥檚 best to stay out of the path of the smoke, to stay indoors when it will be worse.鈥�
Volckens and other researchers looked at a new type of air pollution measurement called 鈥渙xidative stress.鈥� Measurements were taken by small paper devices attached to test subjects鈥攏ew tools developed specifically for the study.
Study co-author Chuck Henry, who is a professor of chemistry at CSU, described how the device works in a :
It lives on your shoulder, it鈥檚 tiny and it breathes the same air you鈥檙e breathing, so at the end of the day, if you were outside more often on a bad fire day, you鈥檇 have more oxidative intake.
Henry and Volckens plan to use the paper device for future research on air quality. The next step is to create a network of 鈥渃itizen scientists鈥� who could employ the devices and create a map of air pollution levels around Fort Collins.
