Editor’s Note: Pamela Appea is a New York City-based journalist covering health, science and intersectionality. The views expressed here are her own. Read more opinion at CNNAsthma cut short the life of my mother and has sickened each of my two children at various points in their lives. During one relatively brief episode of my life I fell ill from it too, some years back. I’m better now but am left with the dread that asthma can always recur, upending the life of my family, sending us running to middle of the night visits to the emergency room or causing my kids to miss yet another day of school.Pamela Appea – Courtesy Pamela AppeaI worry about asthma in the winter when the frigid, dry air can lead to narrowed, irritated airways making the intake of each breath labored. I worry about it in spring, when the pollen in the air can trigger wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath. I worry about it in the autumn as my lungs are not quite used to the increasing cold and when ragweed pollen fills the air.But these days, my fears about asthma are centered mostly around the summer months.Last year, billows of thick black smoke cascaded from Canada’s raging wildfires, blackening the skies of the northern plains of the US and polluting the air as far away as New York City, where I live. Those blankets of smog settled over much of the US and descended on communities as far away as Florida. Some of the smoke even found its way to Europe. My family weathered the worst of the smog indoors and luckily none of us fell ill.Now we may be on the cusp of experiencing a repeat of last summer — and families like mine with a history of asthma are bracing ourselves again. Stultifying heat and devastating wildfires are back in Canada. Last month, fires across the border in Canada led to evacuations of hundreds of people. Minnesota and Wisconsin last month issued warnings that people should stay inside.That was in mid-May, when it was still springtime. I shudder to think what August will bring. Research has shown that wildfire smoke can be connected to the onset of asthma. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are some 25 million Americans with asthma, so I suspect that many, many others feel the same sense of dread that I do.There’s another connection between Canada, asthma and my family — and it’s a somewhat accidental one. My mother, an immigrant from Ghana, spent many years living in Canada, although she didn’t develop asthma until we moved to the United States.Her circuitous path is not unfamiliar for migrants to North America from Africa. After emigrating from Ghana, my mother spent a few years in England, and then moved to Quebec, where she lived and worked. Divorced, she was left to raise me, my older sis …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnEditor’s Note: Pamela Appea is a New York City-based journalist covering health, science and intersectionality. The views expressed here are her own. Read more opinion at CNNAsthma cut short the life of my mother and has sickened each of my two children at various points in their lives. During one relatively brief episode of my life I fell ill from it too, some years back. I’m better now but am left with the dread that asthma can always recur, upending the life of my family, sending us running to middle of the night visits to the emergency room or causing my kids to miss yet another day of school.Pamela Appea – Courtesy Pamela AppeaI worry about asthma in the winter when the frigid, dry air can lead to narrowed, irritated airways making the intake of each breath labored. I worry about it in spring, when the pollen in the air can trigger wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath. I worry about it in the autumn as my lungs are not quite used to the increasing cold and when ragweed pollen fills the air.But these days, my fears about asthma are centered mostly around the summer months.Last year, billows of thick black smoke cascaded from Canada’s raging wildfires, blackening the skies of the northern plains of the US and polluting the air as far away as New York City, where I live. Those blankets of smog settled over much of the US and descended on communities as far away as Florida. Some of the smoke even found its way to Europe. My family weathered the worst of the smog indoors and luckily none of us fell ill.Now we may be on the cusp of experiencing a repeat of last summer — and families like mine with a history of asthma are bracing ourselves again. Stultifying heat and devastating wildfires are back in Canada. Last month, fires across the border in Canada led to evacuations of hundreds of people. Minnesota and Wisconsin last month issued warnings that people should stay inside.That was in mid-May, when it was still springtime. I shudder to think what August will bring. Research has shown that wildfire smoke can be connected to the onset of asthma. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are some 25 million Americans with asthma, so I suspect that many, many others feel the same sense of dread that I do.There’s another connection between Canada, asthma and my family — and it’s a somewhat accidental one. My mother, an immigrant from Ghana, spent many years living in Canada, although she didn’t develop asthma until we moved to the United States.Her circuitous path is not unfamiliar for migrants to North America from Africa. After emigrating from Ghana, my mother spent a few years in England, and then moved to Quebec, where she lived and worked. Divorced, she was left to raise me, my older sis …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
