Blacks in NJ more likely hit with health issues from Canada wildfire smoke. Here's why

While many North Jersey residents have been inconvenienced by the Mars-like orange haze caused by migrating smoke from Canadian wildfires this week, minority and low-income residents in urban centers such as Paterson are more likely to suffer health impacts from inhaling the smoke for days.

That's because more Blacks suffer from respiratory illnesses such as asthma and COPD that can be exacerbated by poor air quality, and lower-income people have less access to health care and to devices that can mitigate the dirty air, experts say.

The air quality index score for Paterson on Thursday morning was 154, and had been 157 about 24 hours earlier, according to the Air Quality Index on the Accuweather website. That places it in the unhealthy category on the Index.

That means the air is polluted enough to affect everyone, but especially people with respiratory illnesses such as asthma and COPD.

Gov. Phil Murphy said on Thursday that New Jerseyans should try to remain indoors for much of the day, especially those with chronic lung conditions.

North Jersey cities such as Paterson and Hackensack have large populations of people of color whose breathing is disproportionately impacted by being exposed to bad air.

In 2018, according to the New Jersey Department of Health, the adult asthma prevalence for Blacks in the state was 14.1%, higher than for Hispanics at 7.9%, whites at 7.5% and Asians at 2.9%.

Asthma emergency room visits by children under 5 were also disproportionate. Among Blacks, there were 2,799 visits per 100,000 children in 2019, compared to 1,054 for Hispanics, 506 for whites and 264 for Asians. Numbers dropped for all groups in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and fear of going to the hospital.

In Paterson, where 62% of the population is Hispanic and 22% is Black, people who have serious breathing issues requiring hospitalization often go to St. Joseph's University Medical Center.

More:How the Air Quality Index can keep you safe from wildfire smoke entering New Jersey

Dr. Roberto Solis, chief of pulmonology at St. Joseph's, said the hospital likely saw an uptick in patients on Wednesday who are majority Black and Hispanic and low-income and who were suffering because of the poor air quality.

"I am sure we can see that, especially in our area, patients and families do not have access to air purifiers and air filters that help with the air quality," Solis said. "The ones who have lung disease and heart disease are the ones that are most affected. They don't have access to their medications or access to health care, and it becomes problematic."

A wheelchair-bound African American client in his 70s with stage 4 COPD and using oxygen visited Solis on Tuesday. Solis said normally such a client would have been rescheduled for another day since his condition would be exacerbated on a day with bad air quality, but he slipped through his list of patients to reschedule.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is one of a group of diseases such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis that cause airflow blockage and breathing-related problems, as opposed to asthma, a condition that causes lung inflammation and makes breathing difficult, but is easier to control than COPD.

New Jersey Department of Health data shows that adult COPD age-adjusted prevalence in New Jersey is 4.9% among Blacks, 4.6% for whites, 3.9% for Hispanics and 2.5% among Asians.

"These are the worst cases," Solis said. "Any change in air quality, they feel it. They feel it right away."

The COPD patient who came to his office Tuesday was there for a wellness visit, but complained about struggling to breathe the past few days. "I pointed to him that's happening because of how our air quality index has been," Solis said.

Hackensack had an air quality index score of 126 Thursday afternoon, which meant it was OK for most people, but people in sensitive groups were more likely to experience respiratory impacts. The city has a diverse population with 36% Hispanic, 25% Black and 13% Asian.

Hackensack University Medical Center had not seen a large influx of people coming in for respiratory issues, according to hospital spokesperson Mary McGeever. She said it could take a couple of days for HUMC to see an increase in patients.

Pulmonologists caution that those who have chronic lung or heart disease will be at greater risk in the days to come if the smoke doesn't dissipate.

More:NJ smoke conditions improve but remain unhealthy in day 3 of haze from Canadian wildfires

"The longer this lasts, the greater the risk becomes," said Dr. Eric Costanzo, a pulmonologist and chief of critical care at Jersey Shore University Medical Center. "We haven't had a lot of activity in our emergency department but that's something that may change over the next 24, 48 hours."

New Jersey Hospital Association CEO Cathy Bennett said in a press release that some hospitals in the northern part of the state saw an increased number of respiratory cases among patients in the emergency room.

Staff writer Scott Fallon contributed to this story.

Ricardo Kaulessar is a culture reporter for the USA TODAY Network's Atlantic Region How We Live team. For unlimited access to the most important news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com

Twitter: @ricardokaul