<
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/09/us-wildfire-smoke-clean-air-clubs>
"Miquette Thompson’s county of Mendocino has been covered in smoke all week.
There are the nearby Feliz and Woodside fires in northern California, which
have burned more than 1,000 acres, as well as the wildfires devastating Oregon
and Washington that are sending smoke their way, too.
“It’s become not unusual,” she said of walking outside and seeing a hazy sky.
The wildfire smoke means dangerous air quality for her under-resourced, “wee
rural little area”, Thompson said. Wildfire smoke is potentially unsafe for all
populations, but particularly for elderly people and those with respiratory
conditions. Hospitalizations for asthma go up 10% on smoke days, according to a
recent University of California study.
Having locally organized around safety amid airborne illness for years –
distributing free personal protective equipment (PPE) to neighbors and Covid
tests at farmers markets – Thompson said she watched as the local health
department failed to distinguish which types of masks help with smoke issues
(N95 masks are better at filtering out tiny particles; cloth or surgical masks
are less effective). So with her fellow organizers at Mendo Clean Air Club, she
began partnering with local businesses that offered to distribute masks, too.
Mendo Clean Air Club is one of over 40 clean air clubs around the world.
Launched by Emily Dupree, a Chicago resident, the first club lent out air
purifiers to touring musicians during Covid. Now, Clean Air Clubs and Mask
Blocs – a mutual aid practice for sharing masks – are offering free masks and
air purifiers from their “lending libraries” to help their local communities
stay safe from wildfire smoke and monitor air quality. Mask Bloc Los Angeles,
for example, handed out more than 300,000 masks in two weeks during the
catastrophic January 2025 LA fires.
“Covid and climate change are two major pillars of collective denial in the
last decade,” said Dupree. “So though our lending library was created in
response to one kind of public failure – namely a failure of public health,
which is still ongoing – it can serve as a solution in response to this second
failure, of governments to adequately address the growing threat of climate
change, of worsening wildfires and worsening air quality.”"
Via Violet Blue’s
Threat Model - Pandemic Roundup: August 13, 2026
https://www.patreon.com/violetblue/posts/pandemic-roundup-166552845
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
