Air Quality Major Danger in California Fires
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The California wildfires. They're raking havoc on everything in their paths, and they're also making a mess of the air that people breathe, filling it with smoke and countless dangerous particles. CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen here to talk about the fire's impact on air quality, who's at risk, and what you should do to protect yourself.</s>ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: And, you know what this is going to really vary, based on who you are. Different people are going to be more vulnerable to the ravages of this air quality because those little tiny particles aren't necessarily going to bother someone whose young and healthy. They can bother people who are particularly vulnerable to lung problems. Let's look at those people who are particularly vulnerable. The elderly, children under 7 -- because their respiratory systems are still developing. For every bit of pollution they breathe in, they have less body weight to deal with it. Also, people who have heart disease and people who have lung diseases such as asthma, emphysema, or chronic lung problems. And also folks who have a cold or the flu or other respiratory diseases are going to be vulnerable to these little particles that can get in the lungs. So what do you do? Well, the first rule, stay indoors as much as you can, especially if you are in those high risk groups we just talked about. Also, keep your doors and windows closed so you keep that guck out of your house. Run the air-conditioner, that can filter some of that guck out -- that's a scientific term.</s>COHEN: Use a hepa filter. That's filtration device you use inside your house that filters it even more. And don't burn anything. This sounds obvious. Don't use your wood stove, don't use your gas stove, don't even use candles. It just adds insult to injury. And, also, don't smoke. Now, again, for people who are healthy, it's not as much of an issue if you have a short-term exposure to this bad air quality. But for folks who are in that group we just talked about, it can really aggravate those conditions. For an asthmatic child, it can be a problem.</s>PHILLIPS: What do you do if you go outside? I see the mask, it's like SARS all over again.</s>COHEN: That's right. Yes, absolutely. If you have to go outside, first of all, try not to exert yourself. It's not the time to be doing heavy yard work no matter how healthy you are. If you do have to go outside, try to use a mask. What you're looking for is you're looking for what's called an N-95 mask. What that is, it's a pretty hard shell. It says right here N-95. And it's not one of these little flimsy surgical masks that you often find in drugstore. This is really not going to do you very much good. It will keep out big particles. It's not going to keep out little articles. I notice many journalists have been using these N-95 masks, and that's the way to go.</s>PHILLIPS: How do you know when it's OK to go back into your house?</s>COHEN: It depends who you are and what kind of health problems you have. Many government agencies are rating air quality in specific areas. You can look on those Web sites and they have an explain nation for what those ratings mean. Those can help be a guide. If you are a young healthy person and you go back and it doesn't feel too bad to you and you decide you can deal with this, you might make one decision. However a child of an asthmatic parent may say, you know what, I'm going to wait a while, wait a couple more days or even longer, because I just don't feel comfortable. I want a wider margin of error.</s>PHILLIPS: Thank you. Appreciate it. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com