It seems obvious when you are in the midst of an area where the skies have been turned orange with wildfire smoke and your eyes are burning, your throat raw and you can’t stop coughing that wildfire smoke is bad for human health.
A new study on the short-term mortality effects of wildfire smoke in Europe has confirmed that the smoke is bad for our health and shows the impact is greater than previously expected. The Guardian reported the study found that previous “death tolls from short-term exposure to fine particulates underestimated by 93%. Researchers found that 535 people in Europe died on average each year between 2004 and 2022 as a result of breathing in the tiny toxic particles known as PM2.5 that are released when wildfires rage. Under standard methods, which assume PM2.5 from wildfires is as deadly as from other sources, such as traffic, they would have expected just 38 deaths a year.”
Deaths that happen directly from the fire - people trapped in burning buildings or overcome by smoke inhalation are obvious and heavily covered by the media whereas “deaths from the toxic fumes released by the fires are likely to go unnoticed”. Smoke of course also doesn’t respect human made national and international borders and as fires caused by or exacerbated by climate change grow more frequent and severe the problem is only going to spread further.
Even keeping doors and windows closed may not be enough to keep toxic pollution from wildfires getting into your home. An additional option is to purchase and run air purifiers.
Have you experienced poor air quality due to wildfire smoke where you live?