Just breathing in the Okanagan the last several days has been equivalent to smoking cigarettes, according to Interior Health.

Smoke covered the valley, erasing the mountains and making it feel more like fall for more than a week now. And although the smoke is starting to dissipate, it will be around for a while yet.

Trevor Corneil, chief medical health officer for IH says in many ways people in the Okanagan are “either smoking cigarettes or (the equivalent of) smoking second-hand cigarettes.”

Each person will react differently to poor air quality and even healthy people could be feeling the effects.

“We do find that there is an impact on people who are healthy, particularly when (the air quality rating) is above seven,” he said. “It is not unusual for people to have symptoms.”

If people feel tired while outside, they should go into a space with clean air, like the Interior Health building on Doyle Avenue or Orchard Park mall.

The impacts shouldn’t be more than temporary, however.

“If this was going on for an extreme long period of time, we might see impacts, but generally, the body can manage,” he said. “Assuming things clear up in the next few days, I think everyone should find themselves getting back to normal again."

There has been an upswing in the number of people visiting hospital emergency rooms.

“That is something we would expect. We have been able to manage it quite well,” he said.

“Anyone who has chronic health conditions, such as heart disease or emphysema, may have exacerbation of those illnesses ... when we have an event like this.”

Microscopic particulate matter in the smoke causes the lungs to contract, and it can get into the blood vessels and impact the heart.

Interior Health advises people don’t spend long periods of time outside and take breaks inside.

“Masks that we use in operating rooms, surgical masks, the masks that we use for influenza season or the mask you might get at a hardware store, do not actually block the particles,” he said.

An N95 mask is able to screen out some of the particles, but smaller ones can still get through.

“When it comes to masks in general, we find that most people experience difficulty breathing with a mask on which is worse than what we are seeing in the air,” he said.