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What wildfire smoke means for your heath

News Feed
Wednesday, January 8, 2025

The fires burning across Los Angeles County have caused billowing dark plumes of smoke, posing a major health threat even as quick-moving flames blowtorched homes, schools and other buildings.As the fires continue to rage and air quality worsens, the risk of health problems escalate. That’s because wildfire smoke contains fine particulates, known as PM2.5, which are one-seventieth the width of a single human hair and can easily infiltrate the heart and lungs.While the fires are currently concentrated on the West Coast, the threat isn’t limited to that region. Residents around the country need to be cautious because wildfire smoke can travel, said Susan Anenberg, chair of environmental and occupational health department at George Washington University.“The smoke is not containable. The smoke goes where it goes,” Anenberg said.Here’s what you need to know about the health effects of wildfire smoke and how to protect yourself.What are the components of wildfire smoke?PM2.5 from wildfire smoke is an invisible, yet dangerous component of smoke and soot.Wildfire smoke is particularly harmful because it includes other hazardous chemicals produced from burning common household products such as electronics, plastics, aerosols and other items, Anenberg said. The mix of materials from homes, vehicles and buildings is enough to cause concerns about short- and long-term biological harm, she said.What are the health risks of smoke exposure?PM2.5 particulates are so small that they can be inhaled through your lungs and enter the bloodstream. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, PM2.5 “is the air pollutant of greatest concern to public health from wildfire smoke.”“Once [the particles are] in the bloodstream they can affect every organ of the body,” Anenberg said.And the harmful particles aren’t isolated to outdoor air: Both indoor and outdoor air can be affected by air pollution and can cause health damage.Exposure can trigger short-term respiratory problems such as coughing, wheezing, difficulty breathing and asthma exacerbation, according to the EPA. Breathing in smoke can also irritate your sinuses, throat and eyes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Anenberg said black particles in your nose also indicate exposure.In more severe cases, exposure is linked to heart attacks and stroke, as well as lung cancer and damage to cognitive functions. There is also a growing body of research that links wildfire smoke to long-term neurological effects such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.“Whether or not those turn into some health outcome, some subset of people that have that exposure will experience effects and cardiovascular effects,” Anenberg said.Is it safe to breathe wildfire smoke? And in what quantities?The EPA strengthened its limits on fine particulate matter last February, lowering the annual soot standard to 9 micrograms per cubic meter of air, down 12 micrograms. The National Ambient Air Quality Standards still recommends 35 micrograms per cubic meter in a 24-hour period.But during wildfires and smoky conditions, concentrations tend to get higher than that. Anenberg said there can still be health effects at and below the EPA threshold.The Air Quality Index — a measure of outdoor air pollution — can also be a helpful tool in determining the safety of air. The index ranges from 0 to 500. Healthy or Code Green is considered below 50. Code Orange means that the AQI is between 101 and 150, meaning that sensitive groups may experience health effects but the general public is unlikely to be affected. Code Red, 151 to 200, means that the air is unhealthy for more members of the public. Code Purple, 201 to 300, means that everyone faces increased health effects. Code Maroon, 301 to 500, is considered hazardous for everyone and could trigger strong irritations and health effects for the general public.To Irva Hertz-Picciotto, director of the University of California Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center, the more particulate matter people breathe, the higher their risk for respiratory issues and other adverse health harms.“We know that the more particulate matter, the worse,” she said.How deadly is air pollution?PM2.5 smoke in general is associated with premature death, Anenberg said. “These fine particles are some of the worst offenders when it comes to global health risk factors,” she said.The World Health Organization states that indoor and outdoor air pollution is associated with 7 million premature deaths annually. Research published by the Lancet Planetary Health journal found that air pollution continues to be the world’s largest environmental health threat and accounted for 6.7 million premature deaths in 2019.Children, the elderly and those with preexisting conditions are most vulnerable to high levels of PM2.5, said Joel Kaufman, professor of environmental health and medicine at the University of Washington, and in some cases it can lead to death.What you can do to protect yourselfEveryone is vulnerable to the risks posed by wildfire smoke — even healthy people, according to the CDC.Here’s what experts suggest you do to keep yourself safe:Remove yourself from the threat. If you’re under an evacuation order and are able to evacuate, do it. Moving away from the flames could help reduce high levels of exposure. While you’re driving, put the air on the recirculate setting.Wear a mask. The type of mask matters. Because the particles from wildfire smoke are so fine, experts recommend wearing an N95 mask — ones that we are all familiar with from the pandemic — to block particles.Reduce your exposure. Close your windows and doors to protect the indoor environment. You can try to filter the particles before they enter your home by using an air filter or a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system with good-quality air filters. A portable air purifier can also help. “You want to be trying to remove the particles from the outdoor air before it gets into the indoor environment or remove it from the air once it’s within the indoor environment,” Anenberg said.Be aware of your local air quality. There are numerous apps and websites that provide real-time data on air quality.Allyson Chiu contributed to this report.

As fires rage in the Los Angeles area, the health risks from air pollution mount. Here’s what to know.

The fires burning across Los Angeles County have caused billowing dark plumes of smoke, posing a major health threat even as quick-moving flames blowtorched homes, schools and other buildings.

As the fires continue to rage and air quality worsens, the risk of health problems escalate. That’s because wildfire smoke contains fine particulates, known as PM2.5, which are one-seventieth the width of a single human hair and can easily infiltrate the heart and lungs.

While the fires are currently concentrated on the West Coast, the threat isn’t limited to that region. Residents around the country need to be cautious because wildfire smoke can travel, said Susan Anenberg, chair of environmental and occupational health department at George Washington University.

“The smoke is not containable. The smoke goes where it goes,” Anenberg said.

Here’s what you need to know about the health effects of wildfire smoke and how to protect yourself.

What are the components of wildfire smoke?

PM2.5 from wildfire smoke is an invisible, yet dangerous component of smoke and soot.

Wildfire smoke is particularly harmful because it includes other hazardous chemicals produced from burning common household products such as electronics, plastics, aerosols and other items, Anenberg said. The mix of materials from homes, vehicles and buildings is enough to cause concerns about short- and long-term biological harm, she said.

What are the health risks of smoke exposure?

PM2.5 particulates are so small that they can be inhaled through your lungs and enter the bloodstream. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, PM2.5 “is the air pollutant of greatest concern to public health from wildfire smoke.”

“Once [the particles are] in the bloodstream they can affect every organ of the body,” Anenberg said.

And the harmful particles aren’t isolated to outdoor air: Both indoor and outdoor air can be affected by air pollution and can cause health damage.

Exposure can trigger short-term respiratory problems such as coughing, wheezing, difficulty breathing and asthma exacerbation, according to the EPA. Breathing in smoke can also irritate your sinuses, throat and eyes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Anenberg said black particles in your nose also indicate exposure.

In more severe cases, exposure is linked to heart attacks and stroke, as well as lung cancer and damage to cognitive functions. There is also a growing body of research that links wildfire smoke to long-term neurological effects such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

“Whether or not those turn into some health outcome, some subset of people that have that exposure will experience effects and cardiovascular effects,” Anenberg said.

Is it safe to breathe wildfire smoke? And in what quantities?

The EPA strengthened its limits on fine particulate matter last February, lowering the annual soot standard to 9 micrograms per cubic meter of air, down 12 micrograms. The National Ambient Air Quality Standards still recommends 35 micrograms per cubic meter in a 24-hour period.

But during wildfires and smoky conditions, concentrations tend to get higher than that. Anenberg said there can still be health effects at and below the EPA threshold.

The Air Quality Index — a measure of outdoor air pollution — can also be a helpful tool in determining the safety of air. The index ranges from 0 to 500. Healthy or Code Green is considered below 50. Code Orange means that the AQI is between 101 and 150, meaning that sensitive groups may experience health effects but the general public is unlikely to be affected. Code Red, 151 to 200, means that the air is unhealthy for more members of the public. Code Purple, 201 to 300, means that everyone faces increased health effects. Code Maroon, 301 to 500, is considered hazardous for everyone and could trigger strong irritations and health effects for the general public.

To Irva Hertz-Picciotto, director of the University of California Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center, the more particulate matter people breathe, the higher their risk for respiratory issues and other adverse health harms.

“We know that the more particulate matter, the worse,” she said.

How deadly is air pollution?

PM2.5 smoke in general is associated with premature death, Anenberg said. “These fine particles are some of the worst offenders when it comes to global health risk factors,” she said.

The World Health Organization states that indoor and outdoor air pollution is associated with 7 million premature deaths annually. Research published by the Lancet Planetary Health journal found that air pollution continues to be the world’s largest environmental health threat and accounted for 6.7 million premature deaths in 2019.

Children, the elderly and those with preexisting conditions are most vulnerable to high levels of PM2.5, said Joel Kaufman, professor of environmental health and medicine at the University of Washington, and in some cases it can lead to death.

What you can do to protect yourself

Everyone is vulnerable to the risks posed by wildfire smoke — even healthy people, according to the CDC.

Here’s what experts suggest you do to keep yourself safe:

  • Remove yourself from the threat. If you’re under an evacuation order and are able to evacuate, do it. Moving away from the flames could help reduce high levels of exposure. While you’re driving, put the air on the recirculate setting.
  • Wear a mask. The type of mask matters. Because the particles from wildfire smoke are so fine, experts recommend wearing an N95 mask — ones that we are all familiar with from the pandemic — to block particles.
  • Reduce your exposure. Close your windows and doors to protect the indoor environment. You can try to filter the particles before they enter your home by using an air filter or a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system with good-quality air filters. A portable air purifier can also help. “You want to be trying to remove the particles from the outdoor air before it gets into the indoor environment or remove it from the air once it’s within the indoor environment,” Anenberg said.
  • Be aware of your local air quality. There are numerous apps and websites that provide real-time data on air quality.

Allyson Chiu contributed to this report.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

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A new study found elevated and previously overlooked health risks for communities living near industrial polluters.

Many people who live near heavy industry are routinely exposed to dozens of different pollutants, which can result in a multitude of health problems.Traditionally, environmental regulators have assessed the risks of chemical exposure on an individual basis. But that approach has led to underestimates of the total health risks faced by vulnerable populations, according to a new study.Now researchers at Johns Hopkins University have developed a new method for measuring the cumulative effects on human health of multiple toxic air pollutants. Their findings were published last week in Environmental Health Perspectives.Regulators typically measure community risk by looking at the primary health effects of individual chemicals, an approach that often fails to address their combined risks, said Keeve Nachman, the study’s senior author.Residents in disadvantaged communities are exposed to a toxic stew of chemicals daily, and they “don’t just breathe one at a time, [they] breathe all the chemicals in the air at once,” said Peter DeCarlo, another of the study’s authors.Follow Climate & environment“Very little has happened to protect these people. And one of the major reasons for that is that current approaches have not done a good job showing they’re in harm’s way,” Nachman said.“When we regulate chemicals, we pretend that we’re only exposed to one chemical at a time,” Nachman continued. “If we have each chemical and we only think about the most sensitive effect, but we ignore the fact that it could potentially cause all these other effects to different parts of the body, we are missing protecting people from the collective mixture of chemicals that act together.”Nachman, DeCarlo and their colleagues set out to more accurately account for the total burden of breathing multiple toxic air pollutants.The study assessed the risks faced by communities in southeastern Pennsylvania living near petrochemical facilities using a mobile laboratory to measure 32 hazardous air pollutants, including vinyl chloride, formaldehyde and benzene. The researchers developed real-time profiles of the pollution concentrations in the air and translated them into estimates of what people are actually breathing.Using these estimates and a database of the chemicals’ toxic effects on various organs, the researchers created projections of the long-term cumulative health impacts of the pollution.By looking past the immediate health effects of chemicals and measuring what happens as concentrations increase, negative health outcomes can be detected in other parts of the body, Nachman said.For example, while EPA risk assessments consider only the respiratory effects of formaldehyde, the study found potential health impacts in 10 other organ systems, including neurological, developmental and reproductive harms.The cumulative risk study appears at a fraught moment for environmental regulation. Although the Biden administration in November released a draft framework for monitoring the cumulative impact of chemical exposure, the Trump administration has announced plans to roll back dozens of Biden administration environmental rules and is considering shutting down the EPA’s Office of Research and Development.A spokesperson for the American Chemistry Council, an industry trade group, said in an email that the Johns Hopkins research “may provide some useful information” but that “further assessment, replication and validation will be needed” of the methods and substances assessed in the study.“ACC continues to support the development of scientifically robust data, methods and approaches to underpin cumulative risk assessments,” the spokesperson added.The EPA did not provide an immediate comment while it reviewed the study.Jen Duggan, the executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, said communities often face higher health impacts than the EPA estimates due to their exposure to dangerous chemicals from multiple sources.“The authors of this paper powerfully demonstrate how EPA has repeatedly underestimated the true health risks for people living in the shadow of industrial polluters,” Duggan said.

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Utah Bans Fluoride In Public Drinking Water

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Dozens of House Democrats pushed back on planned Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cuts in a Thursday letter to the agency. “We are particularly concerned by the proposal to eliminate up to 75 percent of employees within EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD),” the letter, from Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) and addressed to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, reads. “Firing nearly 1,200 dedicated ORD public servants across the country would decimate the scientific backbone of EPA which provides independent, objective, and unparallelled research that informs Agency assessments and decision-making,” they added. The letter featured the signatures of over 60 House Democrats including Reps. Nikema Williams (Ga.), Ro Khanna (Calif.), Summer Lee (Pa.), Don Beyer (Va.), Joe Neguse (Colo.), Jamie Raskin (Md.), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.). The Hill reported last week that the EPA was considering the cutting of its science arm and dropping most of the employees of the branch, per documents reviewed by Democratic staff for the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. The termination of the Office of Research and Development as an EPA National Program Office is called for in a plan reviewed by committee staffers. Fifty percent to 70 percent of the 1,540 staffers in the office would be cut under the plan. “While no decisions have been made yet, we are actively listening to employees at all levels to gather ideas on how to better fulfill agency statutory obligations, increase efficiency, and ensure the EPA is as up-to-date and effective as ever,” EPA spokesperson Molly Vaseliou said in a previous statement. In his letter, Landsman said dropping “the majority of ORD employees would be particularly harmful to EPA’s work to address industrial pollution, contaminated air and drinking water, environmental health, and worsening natural disasters.” The Ohio Democrat also questioned the EPA about the reasoning behind the staff cuts in the plan and the way the agency is prepping “to mitigate the loss of scientific expertise, institutional knowledge, and subject matter capacity resulting from this proposed action.” The Hill has reached out to the EPA for comment.

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