Skip to main content

Health news in Canada | CTV News | Canadian healthcare issues

Health

Pregnant people should be especially vigilant when wildfires pollute the air: doctor

Smoke from wildfires in parts of Alberta, British Columbia and now Nova Scotia has doctors warning pregnant people to take extra precautions against breathing in toxic particles. Dr. Wee-Shian Chan, head of medicine at B.C. Women's Hospital, said breathing in pollutants and toxic gases generated by forest fires takes particulate matter into the bloodstream and lungs, making it harder to breathe.

A helicopter carrying water flies over heavy smoke from an out-of-control fire in a suburban community outside of Halifax that spread quickly, engulfing multiple homes and forcing the evacuation of local residents on Sunday May 28, 2023. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese)