The chemicals emitted when buildings and vehicles burn can find their way into nearby homes. Studies show the health risks can stick around.
Articles on Smoke
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A series of surveys in the months and years after the devastating blaze near Boulder revealed continuing health concerns in surviving buildings, and tips for how to clean up smoke-damaged homes.
Which is riskier for your health: a few days of very bad PM₂.₅ exposure or many more days of slightly bad exposure? Researchers developed new metrics to provide better answers.
An unplanned experiment when wildfire smoke rolled through Colorado shows how trees keep some of the smoke out.
As communities are exposed to wildfire smoke more regularly and over longer durations year after year, it is critical to consider what these changing exposure patterns mean for our long-term health.
The record-breaking and destructive forest fires of the summer of 2023 made headlines. But how did they affect the millions of lakes in the burned catchment areas?
Canada’s 2024 wildfire season will likely be even more severe than the unprecedented fires of 2023. Being aware of the risks, and taking some sensible precautions, can help keep you safe.
States could be in for another summer of unhealthy wildfire smoke as ‘zombie fires’ resurface in western Canada and more blazes break out in the dry conditions.
The forest fires of the summer of 2023 in Québec were devastating. It was the worst year in 50 years. But with climate change, the worst may be yet to come.
People with a lung condition are among those particularly vulnerable to bushfire smoke. But you can prepare for the season ahead.
Wildfire smoke, even from fires far away, carries potentially harmful gases that, once inside, tend to stick around. An air quality specialist offers an easy, cheap, effective way to deal with it.
If you were pregnant or parenting during Australia’s 2019–20 summer of smoke and fire, chances are you felt acutely anxious – and grappling with impossible responsibility.
Thick smoke pouring in from Canada’s wildfires canceled baseball games and pushed air quality in major US cities to the worst in the world.
The notion that wildfire smoke is ‘natural,’ and therefore less harmful than other types of air pollution, is not supported by the evidence. Wildfire smoke has been linked to adverse health effects.
It’s not just the ingredients we should be concerned about. The devices themselves release chemicals that end up in our blood and urine.
Air quality forecasting is getting better, thanks in part to AI. That’s good, given the health impact of air pollution. An environmental engineer explains how systems warn of incoming smog or smoke.
Large stretches of the Arctic are carbon-rich peat bogs. As the region warms and dries, lightning strikes can spark underground fires that can burn for years.
Orangutans are vocal animals, so analyzing their calls during events like wildfires can indicate how smoke is affecting their health.
So much pollution goes into the air today that even without wildfire smoke, 99% of the global population breathes unhealthy air.
Answers to some of the most common questions about wildfire smoke, health risks and the air quality situation affecting most of North America.
Top contributors
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Assistant Professor of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, Colorado State University
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Professor, School of Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney
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Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, UMass Amherst
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Associate Professor of Geography, University of Colorado Boulder
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Assistant Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
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Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney
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Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, University of Iowa
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Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo
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University of Iowa Distinguished Chair, Professor of Environmental Health, University of Iowa
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Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, The University of Melbourne
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Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
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Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, University of Iowa
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Professor of Chemistry, Colorado State University
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Chancellor's Professor in Engineering, Climate Change and Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee
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Professor of Civil, Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Purdue University