I know that no smoke is good for you to breathe in, but I’ve seen some posts about how if you breathe in the same amount of both campfire and wildfire smoke, the wildfire smoke would be worse for you. Why is that?
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One reason is that it’s harder to get away from, especially if you have to be outdoors for work or some other reason, or you have respiratory problems.
Wildfires tends to have a lot more sot and ashes then campfires. The wildfire will use up all the oxygen in the forest so you get incomplete combustion producing lots of sot. And the heat is much stronger then in a campfire so you get a lot of updraft taking the sot and ashes into the air. So it is not just smoke but lots of particles which are harmful to your lungs.
You can get away from campfire smoke my moving a few feet. Wildfire smoke covers hundreds if not thousands of square miles. Most people also aren’t standing around a campfire when it gets started which produces the worst smoke because it isn’t hot enough yet. The relatively cool fire causes incomplete combustion which produces lots of soot and VOCs which is the part that’s bad for you. After the fire gets going, you feed it dried wood which burns hotter and produces less soot and VOCs. Wildfires are constantly burning new material, most of which is still living plant matter so it has a relatively high moisture content, the newly burning material burns cooler and produces more soot and VOCs before it gets hot enough to burn them all up.
Wildfire smoke is more dangerous for two reasons:
* **Prolonged exposure**. You may breathe wildfire smoke for days, weeks or even months, while campfire smoke is usually only for a few hours.
* **Number of particles inhaled**. Wildfire smoke has a lot more tiny particles that can get into your lungs and cause irritation, inflammation or infection.
It’s mostly just a matter of scale. A wildfire is thousands or millions of times bigger than a camp fire and may be burning anything. Plastic is very flammable and releases toxic compounds when it burns
For the most part, the difference is that there is so much more of it. Sitting in the smoke of a campfire is not healthy either, but you’re likely not sitting in it all the time as the wind moves it around a bit. If you’re using dry wood, you’re also going to have a “cleaner” burning process leading to less of the more poisonous components in the smoke.
Of course neither smoke good. But noone is panicking about the health dangers of campfires. Which is way smokier with eyes burning.
I read particle side very important factor in your health. P2.5 or 2.5 Micrometer or less sized gets stuck in lungs easier.
Also, smoking cigarettes must be much worse than a few days of Canadian wildfire smoke over NYC. Unless someone has weak lungs or existing respiratory issues.
Not like this is nuclear fallout!!
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