Breathless Tips needed on July 4, 2022? Chances are if you or a loved one has asthma or COPD, some of you will experience breathlessness during your July 4 festivities.

That’s because triggers and irritants abound at this time of year. However, the doctors and staff want you and your family to have fun during Independence Day Celebrations 2022. Thus, we have an annual warning list of triggers and special alerts for respiratory patients.

We have posted some of these tips yearly, along with our best wishes for a Happy Fourth of July. Each year, FLASS hopes to prevent respiratory patients from ruining their holiday with an asthma attack or COPD Exacerbation.

 

Breathless Tips:  What Can Make You Breathless On July 4th?

Breathless Tips Keep You Safe.

FLASS Invites You to Jump For Joy July 4th. However, Follow Our Tips to Keep Your Lungs Healthy.

In the official breathless tips list below, you will see how certain triggers and dangers in the holiday can make you not only breathless but sick. Nothing ruins a holiday mood like a visit to the emergency room over the July 4 holiday.

 

FLASS Breathless Tips:  Number 1.  Barbeque Pit or Grill

Experts recommend you clear at least a 3-foot area around the grill. Did you know counters, tree branches and paper plates cause the fires that ruin a picnic?

If you have a normal respiratory system, a small fire can still cause inhalation problems. If you have a respiratory condition, a little fire like this can leave you breathless and wheezing.

Judy Comoletti, director of public education at the National Fire Protection Association blames “stacks of paper plates as the number one cause of barbecue fires in the United States.”

 

2.  FLASS Breathless Tips:  Fireworks

The displays you make at home might be more breathtaking than you expect.  It could leave you breathless, wheezing, and perhaps burned.

You see, the medical profession is well aware that every Independence Day, there are approximately 8,800 people who wish they had not toyed with amateur fireworks displays.

And those do not even count the respiratory patients who are hurt. The statistic does include those who are rushed to the hospital for burns and eye injuries.

 

3.  The Breathless Tips Warning Many Folks Will Ignore

We present your July 4 shopping list for the most beautiful but sometimes, deadly fireworks:  Roman Candles, M-80s, and the seemingly innocent, incredibly hot sparklers.

Please do not waste your money, flesh, blood, and breath playing with these.  They can leave you breathless on July 4, 2022. Additionally, they can leave you scarred forever.

 

A Special Breathless Tips Warning:  Sparklers

  • Breathless Tips Include Recognizing the Danger Fireworks.

    Sparklers Are Not As Harmless As You Think.

    According to the experts who sell them, “Sparklers burn at a temperature between 1800° and 3000° Fahrenheit.

  • Most people cite the temperature to be 2000° Fahrenheit as a generalization.
  • “There are a number of factors that determine what the temperature of a sparkler is. Everything from the length of your sparklers to the color they burn changes their hottest temperature.”  And they add that “Gold ones burn the hottest.”
  • “Gold sparklers are accepted as the hottest sparkler available.” Color and filler make a sparkler cooler.      However, manufacturers add less filler and no color pigments to gold sparklers. That makes them burn even hotter.
  • “Though the length and girth of the sparkler can affect its overall temperature, they typically have a temperature of around 2400° Fahrenheit.”
  • In short,  they might not make you breathless on July 4, but they could burn you.

 

Breathless Tips:  A Better Idea for July 4

For years we have been publishing the better, safer, healthier way to enjoy fireworks. FLASS hopes you will attend a nice, safe, professional pyrotechnics show in your community instead of playing with the ones for home use.

However, we add the caution that if you have a respiratory disease, you attend from a distance. Fireworks displays do fill the air with smoke and particulate matter that is not good for the lungs.

Thus, keep your distance.

  1.  Smoke and particulate matter are triggers for asthma. If you or your child has asthma, consider watching firework displays from an indoor location or a far distance.
  2. At the American College of Asthma, Allergy, and Immunology (ACAAI), the experts put it this way, “If you can’t resist the fireworks, consider wearing a NIOSH N95 rated filter mask to keep smoke out of your lungs, and always carry your reliever inhaler.”

 

Fire Pits:  Unholy Smoke, Batman! Don’t Breathe

If You Have Asthma or COPD, the Beach Bon Fire Is Not Your Friend. Stay Up Wind. It Can Make You Breathless.

That is a quote from an ancient Batman Comic. Although we can’t say July 4 Smoke comes from an unholy Super Villain, it might act as it does.

Simple Smoke from Barbecues or Fire Pits can overcome an asthmatic patient almost before you know what is happening.

  • Like fireworks, smoke from fires such as barbecues, bonfires, or fire pits can also trigger asthma.
  • Our advice if you must attend such a party in July, stay upwind and out of the path of the smoke.
  • Likewise, avoid those Tiki Torches like the plague. Just like an innocent campfire, they can trigger a reaction.

 

Pollen Celebrates July 4

Okay, those of us with asthma must avoid fire and smoke during the Independence Holiday. What else is going to get us?

Our answer:  On our list of the hazards for Independence Day are the tiniest offenders:  pollen.

Did you know grass pollens proliferate in many regions of the US right now? Experts say, “The top pollen in many areas during the summer is grass pollen.”

 

Scents can Make You Breathless on July 4

At any July 4 party, scented candles and anti-insect citronella candles also pollute the air and trigger asthma.

A.  Avoid the candles.

B.  Run away from scented oil in tiki torches, as we mentioned previously in this article.

c.   Be cautious if guests are wearing strong perfumes, colognes, and other body-care items that could trigger your asthma.

d.  Remember if you are visiting someone’s home or staying in a hotel.  Those odor-hiding fragrances and air fresheners can be asthma triggers.

 

Breathless Tips:  Mysterious Effect of Sandcastles

If you are spending the Fourth of July at the beach, you should be aware of a strange hazard in digging up the sand. This odd statistic is a warning to all vacationers, not just ones with asthma or COPD.

In the case of your July 4 beach fun, those who dig in the sand, have a 13% more chance of stomach flu-like symptoms than those who do not. You could also get breathless.

Thus, we remind you to pack your inhaler, and your hand sanitizer.

  • Use the inhaler if you get breathless.
  • Use the sanitizer before you eat your picnic or touch your face.

Now that you know about all these triggers that can make you breathless on July 4, we know you will take precautions. The healthcare providers and staff at FLASS wish you a wonderful Independence Day Holiday—from our FLASS Family to Yours!