It is so windy out there, (...), it's so windy that I saw two mejiro birds fly by, and they were going backwards! (true story, also a few 'io out there riding the airwaves).
The Punaweb word(salad) of the day is: Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis - which, although made up for puzzling reasons, is meant to describe any silicosis/pneumoconiosis-like disease caused by the inhalation of volcanic crystalline silica.
When you go digging past wikipedia, you run into a couple interesting items like:
The structure of volcanic cristobalite in relation to its toxicity...
"Respirable crystalline silica (RCS) continues to pose a risk to human health worldwide. Its variable toxicity depends on inherent characteristics and external factors which influence surface chemistry. Significant population exposure to RCS occurs during volcanic eruptions, where ashfall may cover hundreds of square km and exposure may last years.
...
Exposure to respirable crystalline silica (RCS) has been known for centuries to be detrimental to health, and is linked to respiratory diseases such as silicosis, lung cancer and tuberculosis. However, when classifying crystalline silica as a Group 1 carcinogen, the IARC Working Group recognised that silica dusts are variably hazardous and that their carcinogenicity may depend on inherent characteristics of the silica, and/or external factors which affect the particle surface and biological activity."
TLDR: Inhaling volcanic silica ash can be generally bad for your health, but exactly how bad depends on the size, shape, and chemical composition of the ash. For those that are mask adverse, you can run Backscanning Electron microscopy on your local samples to better determine the long-term health implications - lots of avenues of inquiry for the "do your own research" crowd.
Have seen online and heard in person several complaints about breathing issues but with the vog levels being elevated periodically from Volcano to Hilo recently, it may be from a whole mix of causes. Personally, as I've been out clearing some trees that fell across from the neighboring lots, I've kept an KN95/N95 on so that all the grit that's been ending up on my hands, arms, face, etc, during the process doesn't end up in the lungs as well.
The Punaweb word(salad) of the day is: Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis - which, although made up for puzzling reasons, is meant to describe any silicosis/pneumoconiosis-like disease caused by the inhalation of volcanic crystalline silica.
When you go digging past wikipedia, you run into a couple interesting items like:
The structure of volcanic cristobalite in relation to its toxicity...
"Respirable crystalline silica (RCS) continues to pose a risk to human health worldwide. Its variable toxicity depends on inherent characteristics and external factors which influence surface chemistry. Significant population exposure to RCS occurs during volcanic eruptions, where ashfall may cover hundreds of square km and exposure may last years.
...
Exposure to respirable crystalline silica (RCS) has been known for centuries to be detrimental to health, and is linked to respiratory diseases such as silicosis, lung cancer and tuberculosis. However, when classifying crystalline silica as a Group 1 carcinogen, the IARC Working Group recognised that silica dusts are variably hazardous and that their carcinogenicity may depend on inherent characteristics of the silica, and/or external factors which affect the particle surface and biological activity."
TLDR: Inhaling volcanic silica ash can be generally bad for your health, but exactly how bad depends on the size, shape, and chemical composition of the ash. For those that are mask adverse, you can run Backscanning Electron microscopy on your local samples to better determine the long-term health implications - lots of avenues of inquiry for the "do your own research" crowd.
Have seen online and heard in person several complaints about breathing issues but with the vog levels being elevated periodically from Volcano to Hilo recently, it may be from a whole mix of causes. Personally, as I've been out clearing some trees that fell across from the neighboring lots, I've kept an KN95/N95 on so that all the grit that's been ending up on my hands, arms, face, etc, during the process doesn't end up in the lungs as well.