To the benefit of our health, since the ’60s we have been told by the surgeon general, doctors, nurses, advertisers, teachers, the government and the media that smoking is bad for our health. They helped put an end to public smoking and secondhand smoke.
Meanwhile, over the past 10 years, the U.S. Forest Service has engaged endless prescribed burning and the growing of wildfires, while telling us we should just get used to smoke.
Now enter the coronavirus, and suddenly, medical experts are informing us how dangerous prescribed burns/wildfire smoke is for the public, as it will increase the death rate of coronavirus patients. Because of the coronavirus, the updated Forest Service policy is to immediately extinguish wildfires and it has declared a moratorium on prescribed burning and growth of wildfires.
I wholeheartedly agree with this policy. Forest Service smoke is a carcinogen and shortens the life of people with diabetes, seasonal flu, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, asthma, lung disease and other inflammatory diseases.
If the Forest Service now cares how its smoke pollution is affecting coronavirus patients, shouldn’t it care about what happens to people suffering these other illnesses?
People need to realize there are other ways to manage our forests besides burning, while still protecting our health and our property. The Forest Service should invest in super tankers, return to immediately putting out wildfires, log for fire breaks and thin the forests, period. Shouldn’t all lives matter?
Kay SullivanSnowflake, Arizona
