Bay Area Air Quality

I just got to the airport to catch my weekly flight home back to Salt Lake and got an interesting e-mail from my employer. The air quality in the Bay Area is so bad that they are giving us the option of working from home tomorrow. While it is nothing extra special for me, I am sure a lot of my fellow employees are happy that they don't have to try and come in tomorrow.

The wildfire in Paradise, California is really wreaking havoc for the state. While it has a very negative effect on the Bay Area air quality, it has killed many people and destroyed countless homes. Compared to that, I can put up with a some bad air without complaining.

I arrived in the Bay Area this week knowing the air quality would not be healthy. My son who lives in San Jose spent Saturday running around to various stores looking for air purifiers. On his 5th store, he found one and immediately purchased it. By the time I arrived on Monday, all of the stores were completely sold out of air purifiers. I almost bought a few filters, some duct tape, and cardboard so I could make my own (I already have a fan on my sailboat). Knowing I only would be here for 3 nights, I didn't worry about it.

Today at work I passed quite a few of my coworkers wearing masks as they walked between buildings on our campus. Here is a good link about what the government recommends for masks. It is good advice and should be followed.

If you don't have the luxury of being able to skip town and get away from the bad air quality, do what you can to protect your lungs. The best advice I can give is to avoid heavy exercise. Use this as an excuse to play video games. That is what I would do if I had to stick around.