Wildfire has long been a part of life for many Americans. But recently, as wildfires have become larger, more destructive and longer-lasting, a new risk has come into focus for millions across the country: wildfire smoke. People in the East, Midwest, and South have been forced to deal with smoke in recent years โ many for the first time.
Now, a new study quantifies the health impacts of all that smoke. The analysis, published this week in Nature, found that wildfire smoke already contributes to some 40,000 deaths each year in the U.S. But as climate change makes fire-prone parts of North America hotter and drier, fire activity and by extension wildfire smoke could increase significantly, leading to many more Americans being exposed to dangerous, and potentially fatal, levels of smoke.
“The numbers are quite striking,” says Minghao Qiu, a climate and public health scientist at Stony Brook University and the lead author of the study. By the middle of the century, smoke levels could be double or triple the average wildfire smoke concentrations experienced across the country today, he says.
