Wildfire Smoke Health Risks Surge - New Study Warns of Deadly Impact

As fires rage throughout parts of the western U.S, scientists are issuing a dire warning about the health dangers of exposure to wildfire smoke. Here is what you need to know about the details of the new research.

New Study Reveals Hidden Dangers of Wildfire Smoke

While most people associate wildfires with structural damage, the smoke from these infernos poses its own set of dangers. A new study details that wildfire smoke will soon be the costliest health hazard related to the climate. The results of the study were published this week in the journal Nature, painting a grim picture of the impacts of wildfire smoke on human health.

Wildfire smoke is blamed for thousands of deaths each year, and the numbers are growing. Scientists are predicting that the smoke will do more harm to Americans by the middle of the century than any other hazard caused by climate change.

The new study detailed that wildfire smoke is responsible for over 41,400 excess deaths each year. This number is more than twice the amount previously noted by other studies.

The study's authors predict that this alarming number will skyrocket by an additional 26,500 to 30,000 by the middle of this century. The upward trend is coming as human-caused climate change exacerbates the threat of wildfires across the country.

Marshall Burke, a professor of environmental social sciences at Stanford University, was one of the authors of the study. Burke said that his team was surprised to learn that the cost of deaths attributed to smoke was higher than other monetary damages blamed on climate change. This includes deaths attributed to heat waves and agricultural losses.

How does the wildfire smoke contribute to so much loss of human life? Experts detail that the particulates emitted by fires are able to penetrate into the lungs and move into the bloodstream. This penetration increases the risk for health conditions such as lung cancer, asthma, and chronic lung disease. The increase in wildfire smoke is also linked to an uptick in preterm birth and miscarriage.