Skip to content

VIDEO: A close look at what you were breathing during the B.C. wildfire season

Electron microscope images show soot and tar particles generated by worst B.C. fire season

A high-powered microscope in a U.S. university has provided a disturbing close-up look at the pollution from the worst wildfire season in B.C. history.

During the height of the forest fire season, when hundreds of blazes were sending thick clouds of smoke rolling across the province, a researcher at the University of Western Washington in Bellingham decided to take a closer look at the particles people were breathing in.

In August, when the pollution from the burning B.C. forests drifted into Washington state, Dr. Mike Kraft, a research associate at Western Washington University (WWU), collected some samples and ran them through the university’s new Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).

At the time, there were advisories on both sides of the border for people with chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes, lung or heart disease, as well as infants and the elderly, who were advised to avoid strenuous exercise or spending long periods of time outside until the smoke lifted.

Air in Whatcom County was rated “hazardous” for particulates.

Metro Vancouver air quality was rated worse than Los Angels and Beijing.

It wasn’t hard to gather samples, Kraft said.

He simply stood outside with a a filter.

Magnified many thousands of times, the electron microscope images reveal dark, dirty and jagged contaminants, too small to be seen to by the naked eye, covered in tar and soot and easily inhaled.

“When you have access to an electron microscope, you try to think of all the cool things you could look at,” Kraft said.

“I thought there would be broad interest in seeing what makes up the smoke that has been a universal experience in this region. It is good for people to understand what is in the world around them.”

Kraft said the reaction to the images has been really positive, “even if people find what we had been breathing pretty disturbing.”

READ MORE: 2018 now B.C.’s worst wildfire season on record

READ MORE: Trapped indoors: smoke from wildfires especially hard on Langley man with respiratory problems

The images were collected as grayscale but were colourized after the fact, to highlight the particles, Kraft said.

“For reference, the particles are about the size of bacteria or smaller, and roughly 20-100 times smaller than the width of a human hair.”

While there were also forest fires burning in Washington state, near coastal areas like Bellingham, it is believed the majority of the smoke was coming from B.C.

“The particles I looked at are common to wildfires, as best I can tell, and they should be representative of the smoke in B.C.,” Kraft said, though it is possible the particles were larger nearer the source.

”I suspect they are fairly similar. “



dan.ferguson@langleytimes.com

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter

13704614_web1_180925-LAT-UWW-Mike-Kraft
‘When you have access to an electron microscope, you try to think of all the cool things you could look at,” said Dr. Mike Kraft of the University of Western Washington, who took a very close look at the pollution from B.C. wildfires. Courtesy UWW
13704614_web1_180925-LAT-wildfire-Smoke_particle_A_30000x
30,000 times magnification of 1 micron soot particle. Courtesy UWW
13704614_web1_180925-LAT--wildfires--Smoke_particle_D_15000x
Soot and small, jagged pieces woody debris from wildfire smoke, magnified 15,000 times. Courtesy Western Washington University
13704614_web1_180925-LAT-wildfire-Smoke_particle_B_8000x
25,000 times magnification of a 2 micron soot particle “coated with tar-like goo” Courtesy UWW
13704614_web1_180925-LAT-wildfire-Smoke_particle_F_80000x
80,000 times magnification of 100 nanometer-wide soot particle. Courtesy UWW
13704614_web1_180925-LAT-wildfires-Smoke_particle_C_25000x


Dan Ferguson

About the Author: Dan Ferguson

Best recognized for my resemblance to St. Nick, I’m the guy you’ll often see out at community events and happenings around town.
Read more