Wildfires are becoming more frequent and more severe — and where there’s fire, there’s smoke. That smoke can travel thousands of miles. In Augus

How Wildfire Smoke Threatens Health

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2025-01-11 23:30:03

Wildfires are becoming more frequent and more severe — and where there’s fire, there’s smoke. That smoke can travel thousands of miles.

In August 2020, as hundreds of wildfires burned across California, thick smoke billowed through the sky for weeks, causing a record-setting 30-day streak of consecutive air quality warnings in the Bay Area. Doctors in Northern California reported a 43 percent increase in strokes and other cardiovascular issues during that time. Hospital admissions rose by 12 percent. Some researchers estimated that the smoke may have been a factor in thousands of deaths.

Environmental scientists believe that wildfires pose a risk to health long after a fire stops burning. But there are many factors they still don’t fully understand, like exactly how smoke moves through the body or how exposure to it might affect human health long after the haze clears.

Most of what scientists know so far comes from correlational studies, which can reveal potential links between smoke exposure and health outcomes but can’t show cause and effect. These types of studies have linked wildfire-smoke exposure to a higher risk of heart attacks, strokes, complications with pregnancy and childbirth, mental health issues and some cancers.