photo credit: Michelle Marques/KRCB
Smoke haze hangs over Santa Rosa on July 31, 2026.

 We can all smell the smoke from the wildfire burning on the Sonoma Coast. But what does it really do to our lungs, and how can we tell how bad the air is in our own neighborhood? Sonoma County native Jason Curtis is co-creator of Canairy, a free air quality monitoring and alert app. KRCB's Shandra Back speaks with him about the health risks of wildfire smoke and how to better understand the air we're breathing.

CURTIS: We built this app in Sonoma County, dealing with the wildfires over the last few years.

We've had to evacuate, and we know a lot of people who have been impacted. I think a lot of people don't realize how important air quality is to your overall health.

Even if you don't feel it, it causes inflammation. As we're learning now, inflammation can be a really bad thing long term. So we really wanted to get this app out there to help people. It's free to understand the air around them.

In the country, we have a mishmash of air quality. There are a lot of regulators, but very few actual monitors. The EPA has one monitor for Sonoma County, and that's in Sebastopol. That one monitor shows the air quality for Sebastopol, but it theoretically represents all of Sonoma County.

It really gives a very poor representation of what the air might be like where you live if you're in Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park or Windsor.

If you're sensitive, anything over an AQI of 50 can be a challenge. The federal sensor might say the air is great, but you need to know that the air near you, because someone's burning a fire or something else is going on, is not good.

One neighborhood can be very different from the next. We're in wine country, and we understand microclimates for grapes. It's the same thing for our neighborhoods and air quality. Geography has a big impact, whether you're near the hills, where the wind comes in and comes out.

KRCB: On a day like today, if you looked at your app in your neighborhood, what would you see?

CURTIS: It's showing about 160 or 170 AQI. That's well over the threshold. Don't go outside essentially. 

KRCB: What are some of the misconceptions people have about wildfire smoke or air quality?

CURTIS: You go camping, and you're sitting next to the fire, and it's almost romantic. It's smoky. I was driving back from my errands yesterday during the fire, and there were still a lot of people outside just doing their thing.

You don't realize how dramatic an impact it can have on your body. There are so many studies showing the long-term impacts on lung capacity, brain function and Alzheimer's disease. These exposure levels have a lot of impact.

One day like today or a couple of days isn't the end of the world. But when we have an extended fire season like we've had here, and there's smoke for weeks and weeks, it can be really detrimental.

Unfortunately, it's the reality of where we live right now. If it doesn't happen during a year, we're lucky because the norm is that it's going to be here in Northern California as the climate changes. If you want to live here, you should be prepared for that.