Lung Doctors Tired Of The Extra Business Four Physicians Describe ‘Undeniable’ Impact Of Bluegrass Burning

Summer is a quiet season for area lung doctors - until bluegrass growers torch their fields in late August.

Four physicians said Friday they’re seeing the same trend in Eastern Washington and Idaho: a sharp increase in patients when the fields burn.

“We see sicker people with more serious problems - it’s undeniable. The industry’s attempt to pooh-pooh this is like tobacco companies trying to deny their impact on health,” said Dr. David York of Coeur d’Alene.

The doctors shared their observations Friday at Deaconess Medical Center in a press briefing organized by the American Lung Association of Washington.

Recent studies have linked small particles in grass smoke, wood stoves and other combustion sources to lung damage in children and adults, they said.

The studies “dramatically support what I’ve seen in my practice,” said Michael McCarthy, a Spokane pediatric lung specialist and director of the region’s cystic fibrosis clinic.

“We’d all like to be less busy with illnesses that we’re bringing on ourselves,” said Dr. Samuel Joseph of Spokane.

York said he had two patients with “life-threatening” crises during last year’s burning season.

But simply counting office and hospital visits during field burning underestimates the problem, he said.

Many patients try to stay indoors - even though the smallest, most dangerous smoke particles can’t be kept out of the house - and increase their medications. Others leave town to escape, York said.

“To have your vacation schedule dictated by an industry presents a problem,” he said.

The doctors agreed that grass smoke can “prime the pump” for more lung problems.

The medical briefing was a preview of a similar discussion scheduled for next week’s Washington Department of Ecology workshop into field burning alternatives. It starts Monday at 3:30 p.m. at the Ag Trade Center.

Fairfield farmer John Cornwall, president of the Intermountain Grass Growers Association, attended the doctor’s briefing.

He called its timing a “grandstand.”

“It undercuts the impartial nature of the symposium” next week, Cornwall said.

Last Tuesday, Ecology Director Mary Riveland announced that Washington state will cut field burning 30 percent this year and next - and move to ban the practice by 1998.

York congratulated the Spokane doctors on their role in influencing the Department of Ecology’s decision. Riveland credited the doctors for prompting the phase-out order.

“In Idaho, we don’t have government intervention to look forward to,” York said.

There could be even more smoke in the Coeur d’Alene area if Washington growers move across the border to flee the burning ban, he said.

So far, 269 of Spokane’s 700 doctors have signed a petition calling for an end to grass burning in Spokane County, said pulmonologist Alan Whitehouse.

“We expect more. It’s the largest return on a petition we’ve ever gotten,” Whitehouse said.

He’ll give the petition to Department of Ecology officials at next week’s workshop. It calls for grass burning to be “ended or significantly modified.”

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