More people die each year than from car accidents, wars, or drugs. This invisible killer is air pollution from sources such as cars, trucks and factory chimneys.
But as wildfires become more intense and more frequent in a warming world, health experts say smoke from these fires is emerging as a deadly new source of pollution. According to some estimates, wildfire smoke contains a mixture of harmful air pollutants, including particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and lead, and is already 675,000 premature deaths 1 year worldwide, and in varying ranges. Respiratory, heart and other diseases.
Research shows wildfire smoke is starting to rise erode the world’s progress In removing pollution from exhaust pipes and chimneys as climate change intensifies fires.
“It’s really heartbreaking,” said Dr. Afif El Hassan, a pediatrician who specializes in asthma treatment at Kaiser Permanente in Southern California and a director of the American Lung Association. Wildfires “are not only endangering our homes, but also our health,” Dr. Elhassan said, adding that “the situation is only going to get worse.”
These health concerns came to the fore this week as wildfires ripped through the Los Angeles area. Residents began returning to their neighborhoods, many of which were littered with smoldering ash and debris, to survey the damage. air pollution level Still high in many areas of the cityThe air quality index rose to “hazardous” levels, including on the northwest coast of Los Angeles.
Carlos F. Gold, an expert on the health effects of air pollution at the University of California, San Diego, said air pollution, especially in Los Angeles, has reached levels that can increase the daily death rate by 5 to 15 percent. He said that
That means the current death toll, while tragic, is likely to be a significant underestimate, he said. People with underlying health problems, the elderly, and children are especially vulnerable.
Dr. Lisa Patel, a pediatrician in the San Francisco Bay Area, said this week’s fires spread quickly through densely populated areas, burning homes, furniture, cars, electronics, paint and plastics and other materials, and making the smoke more dangerous. said. Managing Director of Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health.
A recent study found that even in homes that have survived destruction, smoke and ash blown indoors can stick to rugs, couches, and drywall. cause health damage It can last for months. “We breathe in toxic substances consisting of volatile organic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and hexavalent chromium,” Dr. Patel says. “It’s all harmful.”
Meanwhile, the increasing intensity and frequency of fires is upending experts’ understanding of the health effects of smoke. “Wildfire season is no longer a season,” said Colleen Reed, a University of Colorado Boulder researcher who studies the effects of wildfire air pollution on the heath. “Fires occur year-round and repeatedly impact the same residents.”
“The health effects are not the same as if you were exposed once and then not exposed again for 10 years,” she says. “The impact is still not well understood.”
A 2022 United Nations report concluded that the risk of catastrophic wildfires around the world will skyrocket in the coming decades. The report said the “global wildfire crisis” is expected to intensify due to development in fire-vulnerable areas, as well as heating and drying caused by climate change. The frequency and intensity of extreme wildfires has more than doubled in the past 20 years. In the United States, on average, The area burned in one year is It has rapidly increased since the 1990s.
Now, pollution from wildfires is reversing decades of air quality improvements brought about by cleaner cars and electricity generation. Since at least 2016, wildfire smoke has eroded about 25 percent of the progress in reducing concentrations of a type of particulate matter called PM 2.5 in nearly three-quarters of the continental U.S. states. nature study Discovered in 2023.
How wildfire smoke affects air quality in California Offsetting public health benefits State health officials found that reduction in air pollution from cars and factories was to blame. (Wildfires themselves are a major contributor to climate change by releasing carbon dioxide and other global warming gases into the atmosphere.) The wildfires that hit Canada’s boreal forest in 2023 destroyed three countries. produced more greenhouse gases than fossil fuel combustion in all countries except
“It’s not a pretty picture,” says Dr. Gold of the University of California, San Diego, who participated in the Nature study. If global greenhouse gas emissions continue at current levels, “some studies suggest that U.S. wildfire smoke mortality rates could increase by 50 percent,” he said.
One silver lining is that the Santa Ana winds that have fanned the flames in recent days are blowing some of the smoke toward the ocean. This is in contrast to smoke from the 2023 Canadian wildfires that drifted hundreds of miles away into New York and other American states, causing a surge in fires. Emergency department visit for asthma.
At one point that year, more than a third of Americans from the East Coast to the Midwest were under air pollution warnings from smoke from Canadian wildfires. “We’re facing new and worsening threats in an unfamiliar place,” said Dr. Patel, a pediatrician.
Dr. Patel said the new normal is changing healthcare. More health systems are sending air quality alerts to vulnerable patients. At the small community hospital where she works, “I talk to every child who comes in with wheezing and asthma about how air pollution is getting worse because of wildfires and climate change,” she said.
“I teach them how to check air quality and tell them to ask for an air purifier,” Dr. Patel added. She also warns that children should not take part in post-bushfire clean-up efforts.
Scientists are still trying to understand the full extent of the health effects of wildfire smoke. Mark R. Miller, a researcher at the Center for Cardiovascular Science at the University of Edinburgh, said the big question is how much of what researchers know about car exhaust and other forms of air pollution applies to bushfire smoke. says. Recent global research Climate change, air pollution, wildfires, etc.
For example, he said, exhaust particles are “so small that when we breathe them in, they go deep into our lungs, but they’re actually small enough that they get into our bloodstream through our lungs.” “And once they get into our blood, they can be carried around our bodies and start to accumulate.”
That means air pollution affects our entire body, he said. “It affects diabetics, the liver, kidneys, brain and pregnancy,” he said. What is not yet clear is whether pollution from wildfires will have these same effects. “But it’s likely,” he said.
Experts have a variety of advice for people living in areas with smoke. Please heed air quality warnings and follow evacuation orders. Stay indoors as much as possible and use an air purifier. If you go outdoors, wear an N95 mask. Avoid strenuous exercise in bad air. Keep children, the elderly, and other vulnerable people away from the worst of the smoke.
Ultimately, tackling climate change and reducing air pollution of all types is the way to reduce the overall burden on health, said Dr. Elhassan of the American Lung Association. “Can you imagine how bad the situation would be if we hadn’t started cleaning exhaust gases from cars?” he said. “I’m trying to think like a glass half full, but it’s heartbreaking and worrying.”
