How wildfire smoke is impacting youth sports in Winnipeg

From youth sports to the CFL, air quality is having an impact on games and practices. CTV’s Jeff Keele reports.

Smoke from wildfires in Manitoba is forcing organizations to cancel events and activities in Winnipeg.

Air quality warnings – issued by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)– have been in effect for much of the week as fires continue to burn in northern and eastern Manitoba.

ECCC cautions heavy smoke conditions are a health risk for everyone especially seniors, pregnant women, and children.

The weather agency encourages people to limit time outdoors and to monitor symptoms like eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches, or a mild cough.

It also warns people experiencing more severe symptoms like wheezing, chest pains, or a severe cough should seek medical assistance.

Concerns over the negative health impacts have forced youth sports organizations to cancel or postpone events and practices.

“The air quality is a massive concern where obviously kids’ health is first and foremost,” Bill Johnson, Football Manitoba’s executive director, told CTV News.

Johnson said volunteers who help run football clubs are finding ways to get games in when the air quality improves.

“It hasn’t gotten to the point where we’ve lost any tackle events yet, but we did lose our provincial flag championships this year. The entire event was cancelled,” Johnson said.

Meantime, the Winnipeg Youth Soccer Association (WYSA) said it lost several tournament games in late May and early June because of air quality issues. Scott Dixon, WYSA’s executive director, said they’re juggling some league games too.

“Cancellations and then rescheduling for later on in the season,” Dixon said. “Hopefully we can play those matches, but it depends on how the weather is going to be.”

Andrew Halayko, a research chair in lung pathobiology and treatment at the University of Manitoba, says children may be more vulnerable to wildfire smoke than adults.

“With a perhaps undeveloped immune system, they haven’t seen the exposures you have as an adult and built up some of the resistance,” Halayko explained.

He says the university has received funding for a lab to study the long-term health impacts of car exhaust and wildfire smoke.

“We already have generations of the population that have been exposed to bad air and we don’t know what’s coming decades from now.”

The cancellations due to the wildfire smoke and air quality continued Thursday.

The JumpStart Games, which were being held by BGC Winnipeg, were forced to cancel Thursday morning due to poor air conditions. More than 600 kids were set to participate and enjoy bounce castles and other activities.

“We’ve had a couple of early morning thunderstorms, we’ve had to accommodate for some severe heat, but we’ve never had to say we can’t run the event,” said Michelle Schmidt, program director with BGC Winnipeg. “This is the first time in an over 10-year period that we’ve run the event that we’ve actually had to say we can’t do it for everybody’s safety.”

Schmidt said they are unable to reschedule this year’s event.

“It’s disappointing for the kids,” she said. “They were really looking forward to it.”