HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. — Like many parts of the country, Kentucky continues to experience poor air quality resulting from Canadian wildfires. Meanwhile, a lab in northern Kentucky is researching its potentially harmful long-term effects.

What You Need To Know

  • NKU Professor Dr. Chris Curran is studying the developmental harm that could come from too much exposure to hazy air

  • Along with kids, people who already live near highways, older adults and pregnant women, along with asthmatics and people with heart disease are the most vulnerable populations

  • Curran says effects persist in memory, motor function and coordination

  • The work being done in her lab, which is supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, will help inform public policy

The samples Dr. Chris Curran and her lab assistant are studying in at Northern Kentucky University come from mice. But Curran said they can shed some light on the developmental harm that could result in humans from too much exposure to the hazy air.

“And the effects persist in their memory, on their motor function, their coordination,” said Curran, who is a Professor of Biological Sciences, and Director of the NKU Neuroscience Program. “We tend to think of little kids as being resilient. But their lungs aren’t fully developed. Their brains aren’t fully developed, so they’re at higher risk. We worry about them the most.”

Along with kids, people who already live near highways, older adults and pregnant women, along with asthmatics and people with heart disease are the most vulnerable populations with poor air quality, Curran said.

People who live near highways are already getting higher levels of traffic related air pollution, which has many of the same chemicals, compounds and particulates that are in wildfire smoke.

Asthma rates, Curran pointed out, are also higher in the Ohio Valley.

“This is where you might see more emergency room visits. This is why the first protective is just to lower your activity level, to stay inside if you have good air filters, if you have good air conditioning,” she said. “It’s going to stay here for a while until a good front and lots of wind kick it out.”

Checking online tools like the EPA’s Air Now and IQ Air before going out, or even wearing a K-95 or N-95 mask, are good ideas, Curran said. She said going to, say, the Taylor Swift concert this weekend is fine for people who are at low risk. But they should try to minimize exertion and exposure.

“You know, just try and chill,” Curran said. “But if you have had multiple E.R. visits for asthma, you have to check with your physician.”

Curran said the work being done in her lab, which is supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, will help inform public policy.

“So the basic research then can be applied to say, well, what’s the safe level? What should we do about it?” she said. “I don’t want pregnant women to panic. Because there’s simple things you can do to reduce the risk.”

Those things include reducing activity and consuming things high in antioxidants.

Curran said the next study will be how to intervene to mitigate effects so that children grow up healthy. She said she hopes that long-term the testing they’re doing on mice can apply to humans.

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