This story originally appeared News from the High Country and is part of it Climate office cooperation.
The more researchers learn about wildfire smoke, the more disturbing the picture becomes. Smoke contains microscopic particles called so-called PM 2.5 because particulate matter (PM) has a diameter of 2.5 microns or less – it is miniature enough to easily enter our lungs and then into the bloodstream. Scientists have already linked particulate matter in wildfire smoke to higher levels risk strokes, heart disease, respiratory disease, lung cancer and other stern diseases.
The harmful effects don’t end there. 2024 was a banner year for research into wildfire smoke and its impact on health, from brain function to fertility. While there is still much to discover, wildfire smoke is believed to be particularly insidious compared to other sources of air pollution; its smaller particle size, occasional spikes, and higher concentration of inflammatory compounds make it more plentiful dangerous.
This year’s up-to-date findings are disturbing. But the more we learn about smoke, the better we can protect ourselves from it, whether we live hundreds of miles from the fire or face it head-on like wildland firefighters do. Research highlights the need for some changes, including better indoor air filtration systems in our homes, hospitals, schoolsAND nursing homesAND clean air centers for people who have nowhere else to breathe vigorous air. Meanwhile, respiratory masks for wildland firefighters are currently being tested by the federal government. We also need to reduce smoke pollution at the source by taking measures to reduce the risk and intensity of wildfires, such as prescribed burns.
Here are some of the biggest advances in scientists’ understanding of wildfire smoke in 2024:
Recent estimates predict that 125 million Americans will face unhealthy air by 2054 as a result of wildfires
Smoke from wildfires has erased air quality has improved in recent years and this trend is expected to continue. According to them, millions more people will be exposed to unhealthy air in the coming years models released by the First Street Foundation in February. By 2054, it is estimated that more than 125 million Americans will be exposed to “red” air quality each year, considered unhealthy according to the Environmental Protection Agency – a 50% escalate from 2024. California’s Central Valley will be the worst hit, with Fresno and Tulare counties three months of the year, according to the study.
Smoke can make infertility treatment more tough
Wildfires that broke out over Labor Day weekend in 2020 blanketed parts of Oregon worst air quality in the world at that time. These approximately 10 days of smoky air affected everyone, especially patients undergoing in vitro fertilization, or in vitro fertilization. Scientists from Oregon Health & Science University studied 69 patients who underwent ovarian stimulation and in vitro fertilization treatment within six weeks after the fires. Their study was published in the journal Fertility and infertility in May, found that patients exposed to wildfire smoke produced fewer blastocysts – clusters of cells that can develop into embryos – than those who were not exposed. Most patients still became pregnant, but the study’s lead author raised concerns about how the smoke might affect infertility treatments. She said Idaho Capital Sun that as an additional precaution, fertility providers may wish to delay in vitro fertilization or embryo transfer in high-risk patients during periods of impoverished air quality.
Smoke from wildfires kills people prematurely
According to research conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles, many more people died due to wildfire smoke than previously thought. Recent tests published in June in the journal Science Advances found that fine particulate matter in smoke caused between 52,500 and 55,700 premature deaths in California between 2008 and 2018. According to the authors, this is the first long-term study to assess the number of deaths caused by years of increasing exposure to wildfire smoke in a state where, like other Western states, wildfires are more common and more severe.
Smoke exposure is harmful to teenage people’s mental health
Scientists from Boulder at the University of Colorado found that wildfire smoke increases the risk of mental problems in teenagers. The testpublished in September in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, analyzed data from 10,000 preschool children who the university said took part in the largest long-term study of children’s brain development and health in the United States. Each additional day that children were exposed to “hazardous” air quality readings in 2016 made them more likely to develop symptoms of depression and anxiety – even a year later.
Years of firefighting can lead to neurodegenerative diseases
Lab rats are obviously not people. However, under controlled conditions, they can provide useful insight into human health consequences. Scientists who exposed mice to amounts of smoke equivalent to what a wildland firefighter would inhale over the course of a 15- to 30-year career found that they were more likely to develop brain disease than mice that were not exposed. The animals’ gene profiles fit a pattern that suggests long-term damage, similar to the effects of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. Although researchers cannot prove that smoke is a direct cause of the increased disease risk, said lead author Adam Schuller Boise State Public Radio that wildland firefighters need to be aware of the impact that a long career in the fire service can have on the human brain.
Wildfire smoke has been linked to dementia
Inhaling particulate matter from air pollution has already been linked to an increased risk of dementia. Scientists say wildfire smoke may pose an even greater risk than other sources of pollution. Analysis of over 1.2 million people in Southern California found that exposure to wildfire smoke over a long period of time – three years in this study – was associated with a higher risk of being diagnosed with dementia. According to a study published in the journal JAMA Neurology, the likelihood of a dementia diagnosis increased by 18 percent for each microgram per cubic meter escalate in wildfire pollution over three years, which is a relatively miniature number. For comparisonaverage PM 2.5 exposure in the census tract near the 2018 Camp Fire in California was 1.2 micrograms per cubic meter from 2006 to 2020, and during the actual fire exposure reached 310 micrograms per cubic meter .