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BY JEFF PIERCE
Dealing with Portland's share of volcanic ash from Mt. St. Helens can be a pain in the neck. It can be a pain to sweep it or wash it off sidewalks, clear clogged gutters and banish heavy ash coatings from parking lots. It can be a pain to wash your car one evening and find it covered with a fresh coat of the gritty stuff the next morning.
But the ash is more than a pain in the neck to some people. It may also be a pain in the lungs, eyes and nose. As the ash is kicked up by speeding cars, stirred by summer breezes, and tossed into flight by busy people on their way to work, many Portlanders have resorted to face masks that protect them from ingesting ash and the trace-mineral elements that go along with it.
All the coughing and sneezing you hear around the city has raised questions as to whether breathing this ash is acceptable to human health or whether it may lead to serious medical complications. At this point, the ash becomes something of a pain to physicians in Portland because they can't say for certain that breathing the ash will not cause physical problems. Neither can they say for certain that it might.
The Multnomah County Health Department released a statement on June 18 that highlights the uncertainty among the Portland medical community saying that: "If present dust levels do not persist for more than a few weeks, the [Oregon Public Health Committee on Volcanic Ash Fallout] members do not expect them to cause serious short term or any long term effects. However, the committee recognizes that no one can predict whether Oregonians will continue to be exposed to volcanic ash from new eruptions over the coming months and years."
Or, in the words of one doctor, "It may take us 20 or 30 years to determine whether it's dangerous [to our health]. If 20 years down the line someone gets something as a result, it's too late."
According to county health officials the material we dump under the blanket term "ash" contains about 20 to 30 per cent "respirable" dust; that is, particles five microns in size or smaller (one micron equals 1/25,000th of an inch) that can worm their way into the lungs. Five to 20 percent of that detectable material may be some form of silica, small crystalline particles that, if ingested in large quantities over an extended period of time, are known to cause lung damage.
While most people eschew the dust as merely an inconvenience, the silica has many others worried. You see, it's silica that causes much of the damage to coal miners that's called Black Lung Disease. When miners drill through rock to reach hidden coal deposits, they raise a fine rock dust that works its way into their lungs. In the body, these particles are ingested by white blood cells, killing the cells and causing the cells to begin a little-understood reaction that results in the formation of scar tissue. The buildup of scar tissue such as this in the lungs eventually causes the lungs to stiffen. When they won't expand and contract as easily as they should, breathing becomes much more difficult. The scar tissue also damages the alveoli, the tiny sacs which are responsible for taking oxygen from the air and diffusing it into the blood.
Local physicians, however, have tried to assure the public that everybody in Portland will not contract silicosis. But there's often a tinge of doubt in their voices, because there's no way to tell whether St. Helens will gush more ash onto the countryside, and thus raise the level of all floating particulate matter, including silica, or whether it will remain quiet now that it has put on a show and will remove all risk to the people who live within its range.
Miles Edwards, chief of chest disease research at the University of Oregon Medical School, expects the dust and accompanying silica to become a problem only if it does remain in the air for years to come. "So far, there's been very little problem," Edwards says, "but if you continue to breathe it day in and day out for some years, some people could develop silicosis."
It's generally agreed among physicians that it takes 20 to 30 years of constant exposure to heavy amounts of silica for someone to show signs of silicosis. Some people, of course, are more susceptible to the ailment than others, and it may show up in them in just two or three years. In either case, medical authorities here say Portlanders have not been and probably will not be gagged with silica levels capable of harming them to any great degree.
"I don't think with the exposure we've had in Portland that we'll have one case of silicosis," states Carl Lawyer, a doctor with the Thoracic Clinic. He tempers his optimism somewhat, though, by reiterating that neither he or his colleagues can say confidently that latent troubles will not appear somewhere down the road.
One immediate worry does arise, however. That's over the effect the ash may have on people with some sort of breathing ailments already. While he's not worried so much about Portlanders, in general, being stricken with respiratory difficulties, Arthur Zbinden, director of the pulmonary diagnostic laboratory at Emanuel Hospital, says he worries tor the people who have been fighting such ailments all along. "Right now," he says, "the major problem is presented not to everyone, but to patients with chronic airway problems. They're the people, in my mind, to whom the risk [from fallout] is greatest."
Not everyone agrees that the ash is probably harmless.
"We're breathing in the north side of Mt. St Helens and Harry Truman, and we're not thinking enough about it," cautions Miriam Tanzer, an intensive care specialist who operates Patient Aid Communications Systems downtown. Tanzer says she has become concerned that people aren't wearing masks to protect themselves from volcanic ash ingestion. She has started selling ash masks on her own at the entrance to her office building, where there's a large sign advertising masks for $1.50 each. There's a duplicate sign on the glass window in her office door.
Tanzer isn't the only one thinking about masks for protection against the swirling volcanic ash. Anyone walking downtown has noticed hundreds of people who have purchased masks to guard against inhaling the gritty material. Whether they have been scared by reports of silicosis or are simply bothered by dry mouths and throats, people have flocked to safety supply stores for protective facial wear.
Some of the masks are simple white cups. Others provide some dash of color to set them apart from the crowd. Then there are always those complicated contraptions with filters on the sides that make the wearer look like Darth Vader.
If one decides that some sort of ash mask would be of benefit, take note that they do not all perform the same tasks. And be warned that some may not filter out the small dust and silica particles that are the reason for wearing the strange looking things in the first place.
"I've been giving these out to the kids in my neighborhood," Tanzer says, picking up a white mask from which two yellow straps dangle. A product of the 3M Company, the mask is thicker than many of those found around Portland, with a thin metal band at the top that's supposed to bend around the bridge of the nose. Before Mt. St. Helens cast its ashy residue across the Northwest, this mask, like most others one can buy, was used by industrial workers. Now, Tanzer says it's the best inexpensive ash mask around.
"I'm worried that people are wearing the wrong masks," she continues, saying that inexpensive surgical masks found in small drug stores and often sold by some independent entrepreneurs "were never intended to keep out this ash. They simply keep surgeons from sneezing into open wounds as they work on a patient."
Tanzer isn't the only person who cautions against using the thin white or blue surgical masks—available on the Portland market for around 30 cents apiece—for protection against heavy ash in the air. George Wolnez, director of marketing for Sanderson Supply Company and a member of the National Directory of Safety Consultants, calls the lightweight face cups "mythical masks" because he says they give wearers a false sense of protection.
"Those little, super-thin ones have no effect whatsoever on the dust," says the mustachioed Wolnez. Though Sanderson's also sells those surgical masks, he explains his salespeople are supposed to "tell people they won't be effective."
Needless to say, shopping for something as unfamiliar as an ash mask can be trying. That's especially true when the 3M Company, which makes most of the very thin surgical masks worn by the bulk of Portland's mask wearers, disputes assertions by Tanzer and Wolnez that they are ineffectual.
"Those masks will filter down to one micron in size," claims Steve Johnson, who works for 3M's surgical supplies division in Portland. "For the majority of people in this area, those will work." Johnson says the 30 cent blue or white masks found in corner drug stores have been tested by coal miners and proven remarkably successful in filtering out harmful dust. He also maintains that the heavier masks "should be used only by people with known lung diseases."
Buying Tips
According to local health officials and safety supply experts, however, the easiest way to choose a quality mask is to pick one that has been approved for industrial use by the National Institute for Safety and Health. The least expensive of those NIOSH approved masks—the 3M No. 1800 like the ones Tanzer is selling— will filter out particles as small as 1/25,000th of an inch, Wolnez says. For comparison, an average human hair is 5/1,000th of an inch thick.
NIOSH sanctioned masks range in price from $1 to $7, but Wolnez says even the least expensive of those will be "99 percent effective" in keeping ash from the lungs. Masks of the 3M No. 1800 type are sturdier than the surgical masks, being made from a combination of plastic, paper and cloth rather than just paper. Some, a little more expensive and thicker, can be vacuumed to extend their lives. (Once a mask becomes difficult to breathe through, it should either be discarded or cleaned.) All of them have more than one strap to hold it on one's head—the surgical masks and some others have just one— thus cutting down on the amount of unfiltered air that might leak in around the mask.
Portlanders are learning fast about mask technology, but there still are things that one should know before rushing out to the corner drugstore to purchase an ash mask. Among them:
• No matter how expensive the mask and no matter how many filters it may have, none of the ash masks on the market will work to their full efficiency on someone with a beard. While the rim of a mask can fit snuggly on a bare face, a beard or heavy sideburns will prevent the seal from being tight. "We have all these people with beards walking around with masks and thinking they're safe, and there's all this stuff coming in around the mask," Wolnez says with a shake of his head.
The only entirely efficient mask for a bearded man is one a fireman might wear, attached to a tank carried on the back that keeps a constant flush of air coming into the mask to keep the seal intact. But these cost upwards of $600 and are a bit extravagant for protection against volcanic ash.
If you have a beard, don't give up on the idea of masks, though. While their efficiency may not be as great, they still help. "And I suppose you could always shave the beard off, "Wolnez says. "In fact, one woman came in here and was glad to hear they wouldn't work with beards. 'That's the excuse I've been waiting for,' she said. 'I've wanted my husband to shave his off for a long time.' "
• None of the masks is designed for children, either. The masks are all too large. The best one can do is buy an inexpensive one and reduce its size by taking tucks around the edges, then taping down the tucks. (Trying to stitch the tucks might open new gaps in the mask.)
• "A wet handkerchief isn't going to work because it doesn't seal," Wolnez advises. Dust will slip in underneath the handkerchief Wetting one of the paper surgical masks won't help much,either, and only will shorten the life of the mask.
• Gas masks won't work against the ash fallout. "They were never designed to take on particles that size," Wolnez adds.
• If one buys a mask, be sure it has two straps that go around the head, not just one. It's better if those straps are adjustable: the seal can be tighter that way. If you have a mask with two straps, use them both. While it may be easier to breathe if only one strap is attached, it's easier because unfiltered air is seeping in around the edges of the mask.
• Many of the less expensive masks are pliable and can be formfitted to one's face. If there is a thin metal band at the top of the mask, this should be bent down around the nose. To test the mask's seal, blow into it. If air is seeping out, air can seep in as well.
• For people with glasses, wearing a mask may seem more trouble than it's worth. Unless the mask has some sort of valve to release exhaled breath, the hot air will rise to fog one's glasses. Switching from glasses to contact lenses solves that trouble but creates others—the volcanic ash may get in under the contacts and irritate the eyes.
One way to prevent fogging is to wash glasses with either liquid soap or regular bar soap but leave the soap to dry on the glass. A technique used in many operating rooms, this also is effective for four eyed, ash-mask users.
Do you need one?
While many Portlanders have invested in ash masks, air-pollution authorities still are not sure whether we need to wear them.
Max Bader, Oregon State health officer, labels the ash in the air "a nuisance," but says it's probably not necessary for everybody to wear a mask at this time. "I think it's desirable to be selective in wearing the masks," he explains. "In some ashy parts of the city, like Beaverton, they would help. But in other parts it's senseless to be wearing a mask." He singles out Lake Oswego as an area spared heavy ash fallout.
Bader says he doesn't worry that some people are using masks that may not be filtering out all particles of ash. "If they're just using them for going to work and back, then I have no complaints about (the masks without NOISH approval)," he says. "If they're working in an environment where they're around dust a lot—if they're sweeping out a parking lot, for instance—then those masks are probably not working up to standard."
The health officer is encouraged by the news that levels of ash in the air have been coming down, and says masks probably are less necessary than they were last week. But, like the doctors, he is quick to point out masks could be useful again if Mt. St. Helens billows forth more ash.
So far, Portland has endured several air pollution alerts. At least one city commissioner has warned that area "shutdowns" might be necessary in the wake of volcanic eruptions. We've been told to stay indoors and not to go out without a specific reason. We've been told not to drive our cars, and if we do, to drive them only 15 miles per hour in the city. There have been cautions that we should wear masks, either to keep dirt out of our lungs or to prevent inhalation of more harmful materials.
It's too new an experience for anyone to say confidently this will happen, or that will happen, or that we should do this or else. The future of Portland's ashy affair with Mt. St. Helens is, as the song goes, "blowin' in the wind."