Life-Threatening Toxic Air

I’ve been thinking about the “smaller” gaps in our preparedness lately. We spend so much time worrying about the “big ones” (the kind of events that feel almost insurmountable like this eye-opening EMP and solar flare presentation) because those are the scenarios that keep us preppers up at night.

There is a certain level of dread that comes with a devastating solar flare or a massive EMP strike because, frankly, there are some disasters I’ll never be truly prepared for, no matter how much gear I stack in the garage. 😉

But while we keep one eye open waiting for the grid to go down, we often miss the threats right under our noses or, more accurately, the ones going into our noses in this case. Air quality is one of those things that rarely makes it onto the average prepper’s radar until the sky literally changes color and then everybody wonders why it’s hard to breathe.

We talk about water filtration until we’re blue in the face, and we obsess over calorie counts in our food buckets, but how often do we sit down and discuss the literal air we breathe?

I recently read a report from the Daily Mail about life-threatening toxic air spreading across multiple U.S. states. It’s a sobering reminder that “shelter-in-place” isn’t just a buzzword for a chemical spill or a viral outbreak; it can be a mandatory response to shifting winds and environmental hazards that we can’t see coming without the right tools.

Clearly, we need to be taking the “smaller” hazards more seriously. I’ll admit, I’m included in ignoring them. It wasn’t until I lived in Washington state that I truly understood how quickly the outdoors can become your enemy. During one wildfire seasons there, the air smelled of smoke, albeit not horribly so, but it was enough for me to take action.

It wasn’t a “grid-down” scenario, but it might as well have been for anyone with serious respiratory issues. When the smoke got bad enough, I ended up building a DIY box fan air filter just to keep the indoor air tolerable. It was a simple, cheap solution, but it worked wonders.

If you haven’t thought about air quality yet, you really should start with the basics. Having a supply of N-95 masks is a non-negotiable, and has been for a long while because they are essential for filtering out the particulate matter that comes with smoke or localized dust events. Beyond that, I’ve started paying much closer attention to the filters I use in my home’s HVAC system. Investing in high-quality filters that can actually trap smaller particles is a simple “set it and forget it” way to upgrade your daily health and your emergency readiness. (But it also apparently comes at a cost of HVAC efficiency, so you’ll have to decide whether doing so is worth it.)

Obviously, there are levels to this. A wildfire is one thing, but a toxic chemical release or a biological hazard requires a more aggressive approach to sheltering in place. You should have the materials on hand, like plastic sheeting and duct tape, to seal off a “safe room” if the authorities tell you the air outside is life-threatening as this recent event was. Hopefully, you’ll never need it, but preventing air pollution from hurting your homestead is a daily task.

Staying informed is half the battle, of course since you can’t react to a threat you don’t know exists. This is where a quality weather radio comes in. I’m a big advocate for having something that can wake you up in the middle of the night if there’s an emergency alert, no matter what it is. I also keep dozens of smartphone apps on my phone for the very purpose.

You might also be interested in this Air Quality Index, especially when there are reports of industrial accidents or large-scale fires nearby.