Wildfire Smoke Is Loaded With Microbes. Is That Dangerous? (wired.com) 33
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: If you're unfortunate enough to breathe wildfire smoke, you're getting a lungful of charred plant material, noxious gases, and -- if the fire tore through human structures -- incinerated synthetic materials. All across the board, it's bad stuff, proven to be a severe detriment to human health, particularly for those with respiratory conditions like asthma. And not to pile on the worries, but that haze also turns out to be loaded with microbes like bacteria and fungi. The problem is, scientists have only just begun to study this smoky microbial community. That led a pair of researchers to publish a new perspective piece in the journal Science today calling for a multidisciplinary push to better characterize these microbes and determine how they might be making wildfire smoke even worse for human lungs. "It's not just comprised of particulate matter and gases, but it also has a significant living component in it," says University of Idaho fire scientist Leda Kobziar, coauthor of the piece. Wildfire smoke may actually spread beneficial organisms for an ecosystem, Kobziar adds, but "what might the consequences be for the spread of pathogens that we know are airborne?"
But hold on a tick: Shouldn't the microbes get cooked to death in the flames? Well, that's not giving these microbes any credit. You see, a wildfire burns with different intensities at different spots as it moves across a landscape. "At the smallest scales, complete combustion is coupled with incomplete combustion," says Kobziar. "Even at one centimeter, you could get very high temperatures for long durations, and at the next centimeter, it can be completely skipped, and no heat at all. So that degree of variability provides a lot of pockets in which these microbes could survive fire." Instead of perishing, they hitch rides on bits of charred carbon and in water vapor, as the wildfire's heat propels all of the muck skyward. If they end up in tiny droplets of water, this could well protect them from desiccation as they travel downwind. "We know that microbes attached to dust particles are certainly transported across continents," Kobziar says. "So we have no reason to believe that that's not also occurring in smoke as smoke travels. But how long do they survive, and which ones survive? That is an open question, and that's exactly the kind of research that we're hoping this paper will inspire."
But hold on a tick: Shouldn't the microbes get cooked to death in the flames? Well, that's not giving these microbes any credit. You see, a wildfire burns with different intensities at different spots as it moves across a landscape. "At the smallest scales, complete combustion is coupled with incomplete combustion," says Kobziar. "Even at one centimeter, you could get very high temperatures for long durations, and at the next centimeter, it can be completely skipped, and no heat at all. So that degree of variability provides a lot of pockets in which these microbes could survive fire." Instead of perishing, they hitch rides on bits of charred carbon and in water vapor, as the wildfire's heat propels all of the muck skyward. If they end up in tiny droplets of water, this could well protect them from desiccation as they travel downwind. "We know that microbes attached to dust particles are certainly transported across continents," Kobziar says. "So we have no reason to believe that that's not also occurring in smoke as smoke travels. But how long do they survive, and which ones survive? That is an open question, and that's exactly the kind of research that we're hoping this paper will inspire."
Re: Is that dangerous? (Score:2)
Consider that you would starve and die without your gut and skin being full of microbes. But they normally would fill with microbes again way quicker than that. Just not necessarity good ones. The vast majority is good though. :)
E.g. you can bake delicious sourdough bread with just flour, water, and a swab from your skin right now. (So laugh at the term "yeast shortage". Loudly.
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Not just the skin. https://youtu.be/IA-asF0-7EQ [youtu.be]
(After Life is on Netflix)
wide reports of unusual lung infections (Score:1)
No? Then carry on with scientifically interesting research and leave the hyperbolic journalism in the gutter where it belongs.
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'Unusual' in terms of alien parasites from Tunguska? The truth is out there!
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There is clear evidence [fivethirtyeight.com] of wildfire induced respiratory illness. What precisely causes that ailment? Only particulate matter and gasses, with no contribution at all from microbe exposure? It might be premature to reach for that conclusion.
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It is not so much the fire, but the high speed localised wind gusts associated with it. The fire burns, hot air rises fast and of course sucks in more air to replace the rapidly rising hot. That is where the microbes are all picked up and of course dead critters all over, that will be crispy on the outside but raw and rotting on the inside. Ever picked up dead sheep after a fire, I have and they are all soft and squishy on the inside and rot down really quick and exclude and rotting miasma, that in hot stil
Re: wide reports of unusual lung infections (Score:2)
Yes, it is obviously both. Everyone knows that, by the sheer fact that every surface of your body and environment is covered in microbes, which are mostly harmless and useful, unless some interfaces, like your lungs, get weakened by pollution of poisons or other illnesses and they can get inside places they shouldn't be.
And? Nothing of that is not what medicine is based on since a long time ago.
Y'all need some Journey To The Microcosmos [youtube.com] in your lives!
Re: wide reports of unusual lung infections (Score:2)
You don't need microbes to explain it, although they may be contributory and if you are trying to treat it you may need to take them into account. But the stuff we already knew was in the smoke was bad enough. Soot of varying sizes, dioxins, and poison oak resins for example, to say nothing of the plastics and whatnot that are littered around, and even plastic microparticles.
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Worthwhile research (Score:4, Interesting)
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This morning I happened to spot a singed California bay laurel leaf that had traveled at least 4 miles in fierce winds, from some wildfire to a local parking lot, that I had picked up and saved. California bay laurel can host the organism responsible for sudden oak death. The research is worthwhile.
The only reason you knew it had traveled four miles is because it was singed, but it probably would have traveled that distance with or without the fire, because leaves periodically fall off of even evergreen trees whether there's a fire or not.
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Without the updrafts from the fire? Maybe not.
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Fair point. That probably increases the odds of it reaching an altitude where it can go a long distance.
Re: Worthwhile research (Score:2)
Like Californian heat hasn't enough updraft already.
Also, you are missing the point: Saying "Ooohh, microbes!" Is like saying "Oooh, radiation!!" It's only a scare to those who don't know that *everything* is full of it *all the time*. :D)
(Hey, there's a joke about politicians in there!
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The book claims COVID is caused by 5G .. diseases are caused by the environment. Apparently the author didn't know that diseases like the plague, tuberculosis, dysentery, cholera, pneumonia, small pox, syphilis, and leprosy used to kill people long before the modern age. Either that or people used to be immortal back then.
Re: more germ theory hysteria (Score:2)
Well, diseases *are* cause by the environment and environment only. :)
It's just that Covid *is* part of the environment, and so is whatever caused your parents to ruin your genetic makeup.
Is that book an insane overreaction to that typical insane action of doctors when they declare an organ do be the cause of a disease? (Usually right before they give you symptom hiders, while what ultimately actually caused the disease ... usually crap food or asshole people ... keeps happily affecting you.)
How about both
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Hahahaha you're an idiot. Viruses exist and absolutely cause disease. They aren't there to coddle you. Human life is worth nothing to nature, same as the dinosaurs and trilobites were worth nothing.
Re: more germ theory hysteria (Score:2)
Thanks for strengthening his belief. --.--
Look, you use empty statements instead of arguments. You are just as clueless as him. You just happen to fall on the right side. And your view is just as much a thing of emotions, not higher reasoning. Nothing against emotions, they are essential, but we got a mechanism to keep them from misleading us, and it should be used too.
He is basing his view on emotions too.
So arguments would do nothing.
Fear of death cannot be argued away.
Let alone be removed with personal a
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Who says they were unknown 200 years ago? You seem to think medical science, record keeping, and communication was just as advanced back then as today. There was no CDC tracking cases. In any case, cancer was described thousands of years ago. For hells sake, the 4000 year old Egyptian surgical papyrus talks about operating on cancer or just giving up. For cancer, while in some cases it says to operate for metastatic cases the papyrus literally says "don't bother, there is no treatment." As for diabetes it
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Just because an idea is different than the mainstream doesn't mean it's correct. It's dumb to agree with an idea just because it's different. Blindly calling something false is stupid too. According to your theory that the mainstream is always wrong, the Sun shouldn't rise tomorrow because heck the mainstream believes the Sun will rise. The germ theory has a lot of proof -- we can see viruses, the RNA code of the virus shows how it can enter and replicate in human cells. We have been studying viruses for a
Jesus, how clueless are you? (Score:2)
*Everything is loaded with microbes.*
Your skin is loaded with microbes right now.
Your drinking water is loaded with microbes.
Your table and chair and wallet and keyboard and steering wheel amd everything are full of them.
Hell, guess what your gut is...
Microbes does not mean bad.
And even bad does not mean harm.
Partially thanks to good microbes already occupying you.
You're like people usinf "atom" or "radiation/rays" that way in earlier decades.
Might aswell say your Big Ass Fries come Now With More *Molecules
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The vast majority of bacteria and fungi are not just harmless, but essential to larger forms of life. A forest could not survive for long without micro-organisms to break down dead leaves and wood. That is where good soil comes from. Other than that, you have a desert. It is not surprising that bacteria found in forests can survive forest fires, as they have had millions of years to evolve that capability. The seeds of many forest plants are also adapted to survive fire.
If some mad scientist comes up with a
Re: Jesus, how clueless are you? (Score:2)
Bacteria harmless or even beneficial in one place can be harmful in another. The bacteria responsible for decomposition are harmful to your skin. E.Coli is part of your digestive system but if you get it in your mouth it is not good.
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I think that "friendly" bacteria causing disease is quite rare. I guess it happens in patients with a severely compromised immune system, such as people with AIDS, who suffer all sorts of strange infections.
One interesting group of friendly bacteria are various kinds of lactobacillus, that typically ferment milk to produce yogurt and cheese, but are also important in sourdough culture and sauerkraut. Lactobacillus fermentation produces lactic acid, which inhibits many other organisms, and acts as a preserva
Great if you can do it. (Score:2)
It is not dangerous... (Score:2)