Washington Post: Smoke from wildfires may be surprisingly deadly, scientists report

Speaking at the annual American Geophysical Union meeting in New Orleans, researchers from Colorado State University and the University of Houston suggested yesterday that wildfires may be responsible for thousands of U.S. deaths annually due to the tiny pollution particles they put into the atmosphere. Moreover, just as fires are expected to worsen under climate warming, so might these health impacts.

“If this is the new norm for California … and people in California are being exposed to these smoke events regularly, then we would expect this to have an impact on the average lifetime of people in California,” said Jeffrey Pierce, a professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University who presented his preliminary results at the meeting and a news conference afterward.

Read the Washington Post article, “Smoke from wildfires may be surprisingly deadly, scientists report.”