Research shows increasing exposure to wildfire smoke poses significant health risks, impacting not just the heart and lungs but also the brain, potentially raising the risk of dementia and neurological disorders. This increase is attributed to more intense and longer-lasting wildfires fueled by climate change.
A growing body of research suggests that exposure to wildfire smoke can have detrimental effects not only on the heart and lungs but also on the brain, including raising the risk for dementia and other neurologic disorders. The number of wildfires in the United States hasn’t increased, but fires here and elsewhere in the world have become more intense, larger, and more destructive in recent decades. Warming temperatures, earlier snowmelt, and prolonged dry periods have extended the fire season.
Because of climate warming, the fire season is starting earlier and ending later each year, Brian Harvey, PhD, MS, with the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, told.Drying of vegetation and fuels has made landscapes more flammable, and historical fire suppression policies have led to the accumulation of fuels in forests, he explained. Every time that fire burns, it removes fuel for the next fire, Harvey said. But fire suppression policies have led to significantly more fuel, making fires more intense and harder to control.Wildfire smoke can travel thousands of miles and affect air quality in communities far from the actual fire source. Last summer, when vast numbers of wildfires were burning in eastern Canada, thick plumes of smoke drifted south into many areas of New Jersey and New York, triggering widespread air quality alerts and some flight restrictions. the average person living in the United States breathed in more harmful wildfire smoke in 2023 than in any year since 2006. Studies suggest that exposure in the United States has increased 27-fold over the past decade. Wildfire smoke is a complex mix of pollutants, but fine particulate matter (known as PM2.5) accounts for about 90% and is the main threat to human healt
WILDFIRE SMOKE HEALTH AIR QUALITY CLIMATE CHANGE
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