By Gaurav Jain
Earlier in June, Calgarians woke up to skies the color of dishwater and a familiar ping on their phones: “Special air quality statement in effect.” Environment Canada warned that wildfire smoke was blanketing the region, with vulnerable populations advised to stay indoors. These alerts are becoming seasonal markers, unfortunately, just like snow melts and lilac blooms.
We talk about poor air when it smells like a campfire or turns the sky orange. The rest of the time, however, we check the AQHI, shrug, and move on. We can’t afford to anymore.
Even when it’s not dramatic, the air in Calgary and surrounding areas is already costing us daily. It’s showing up in our activities, our hospitals, and in our funerals.
What the data shows:
According to Health Canada, human-caused air pollution in the Calgary Region Airshed Zone (CRAZ), which includes Calgary and adjacent areas, leads to:
· 1.6 million respiratory symptom days each year
· 606,556 restricted activity days, like sick days, missed school, missed work
· 458 annual premature deaths
· $3.63 billion in annual economic and healthcare costs
Imagine nearly half a million people missing a day of work or school because they couldn’t breathe comfortably. Or someone with asthma losing 11 days of health a year just for living here. This is how air quality is shaping life in southern Alberta now.
These figures come from Health Canada’s AQBAT model (Air Quality Benefits Assessment Tool), which estimates how much healthier we’d be if our air were as clean as nature intended. The gap between that and today’s reality shows us what we’re paying for every breath. CRAZ reached out to Health Canada to request the AQBAT results specific to its region and then worked with that data to calculate the health and economic impacts of air pollution.
Bad air is more than just bad luck.
Some people are bearing much more of the cost than others. Roughly 146,883 people in the region live with respiratory disease that is worsened by air pollution. On average, they experience 11 extra symptom days per year due to poor air quality. For children, the toll is especially sharp: over 1,600 episodes of acute bronchitis are linked to air pollution each year.
Unlike many other kinds of pollution, air affects not just urban dwellers. Communities near forested areas, like those in CD15 west of Calgary, are experiencing a sharper rise in illness, likely connected to wildfire exposure. Children are coughing. Seniors are staying home. This is a crisis doubling up as our forests burn.
The air we could have
Here’s what we’d gain if we cleaned up the air to baseline levels:
· 458 fewer premature deaths
· 2.2 million fewer sick days
· $206 million a year in savings to our healthcare system and in productivity
· 275 fewer emergency room visits
· 69 fewer hospital admissions
Cleaner air isn’t an abstraction. It’s a better life for everyone. It’s a grandparent spending spring in the garden instead of the ER. It’s a child playing out in the park. It’s all of us breathing without checking an app first https://www.theweathernetwork.com/en
Five things we can actually do
So what helps?
Here are five practical ways to cut everyday air pollution, without waiting for more legislation:
· Avoid idling your vehicle. It wastes fuel and contributes to local air pollution.
· Avoid gas-powered lawn and garden tools. They contribute to local air pollution and can be easily swapped for electric or manual options.
· Walk, bike, or take transit when you can. Fewer vehicles means fewer emissions, especially during peak hours.
· Ease up on backyard fires. Fire pits might be cozy, but they seriously degrade local air quality.
· Choose energy-efficient appliances. They cut down both your power bill and the pollutants generated upstream.
These are small acts. But they’re collective ones and they add up.
Clean air is a public right
We’ve started treating clean air like a luxury, something to appreciate on a clear-sky day and ignore the rest of the time. But it isn’t. Clean air is public health infrastructure, just like safe drinking water or working sewage systems. And right now, in Calgary’s current air, we’re all a little poorer.
We know what causes the damage, and the data is clearly showing the price we’re paying. Now we just have to do something with it.
