00:00Smoke from the Canadian wildfire is drifting across much of the United States and it's more
00:04than a breathing hazard. It could trigger serious heart problems. Joining us right now is Dr. Keith
00:09Churchwell, volunteer president of the American Heart Association. As we've been talking about,
00:15this smoke is going to be a problem for many right through the summertime here. So this is
00:22going to be a problem affecting a lot of people. Now, Dr. Churchwell, how can wildfire smoke
00:27affect your heart? Good morning. Great question. A couple of issues I think actually come up with
00:34wildfire smoke. Number one is the stress and strain from the emotional and physical exertion that comes
00:40with actually dealing with the smoke. And also the fact that the smoke itself has microparticles that
00:46can affect the lung and also can affect the heart because with those microparticles that get into the
00:51bloodstream that can lead to inflammation, can lead to vasoconstriction, especially with those who
00:56actually have underlying coronary disease, can actually lead to elevation of blood pressure,
01:00can also lead to heart arrhythmias. All of those can lead to, have led to a significant increase
01:05in cardiovascular events really related to actually this type of weather and significant smoke event.
01:12Who's going to be most at risk then from smoke exposure?
01:16Those who are most at risk would be those with underlying lung disease and cardiac disease.
01:21Those with asthma, those with actually with COPD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,
01:25those people actually can be affected significantly by this. And although those with underlying cardiac
01:30disease, known coronary disease, known heart failure, those with actually known heart arrhythmia that
01:36can be exacerbated by these particular conditions. And is there a length of time
01:42that is the most dangerous for the people that are most vulnerable? Is it five minutes? Is it a couple
01:50of hours? Is it daily? Is there a time part of this?
01:56Well, that's a great question. I would think daily would be worse than five minutes, a couple hours
02:02worse than five minutes. The less you can be in these particular conditions, the better. If you can find
02:06yourself in a way that you can decrease the amount of interaction that you have with smoke by actually
02:12having a filter, an air conditioning system that allows you to stay inside, filter the air appropriately,
02:18or get out of the area where smoke is actually the heaviest would actually be key.
02:24All right. It's also CPR and AED Awareness Week. Why is that so important for people to learn these
02:30life-saving skills?
02:33Well, that's a great question. You know, each year in the United States, over 350,000 people die from
02:37cardiac arrest and more than 23,000 children experience cardiac arrest outside the hospital each year.
02:43The way that we can actually have a major impact on those particular events is actually with CPR.
02:48CPR saves lives. Immediate CPR and AEDs can double or even triple someone's chances of actually surviving
02:55a cardiac arrest. So that's really important to actually know CPR.
02:59And what should someone do if they see a person collapse from cardiac arrest?
03:06So two things. Number one, call 911 if you see a teen or adult suddenly collapse. And number two,
03:13learn hands-only CPR. It's actually really easy. Push fast and hard in the center of the chest to a
03:19beat of a song like Staying Alive at 100 to 200, 120 beats a minute. And for children, actually,
03:25you should learn how to actually give breaths every 20 to 30 beats to ensure that they're actually
03:30getting appropriate oxygenation. But hopefully in that period of time, especially with our emergency
03:35response system, someone's going to be there to help you and get that patient to the hospital and
03:39with your actions can improve their capability of leaving the hospital intact.
03:44Dr. Keith Churchwell, volunteer president of the American Heart Association. Thanks for joining us
03:50today. Great information, sir. And thank you so much for educating our viewers.
03:57Oh, great. I hope that was helpful. Everybody stay safe.
03:59We'll see you next time.
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