WASHINGTON, United States: Wildfires are growing larger, lasting longer and happening more often as the climate warms -- but the toll from their toxic smoke, especially from long-term exposure, remains poorly understood.
A study published on Wednesday in the journal Science Advances estimates that wildfire smoke caused about 24,100 deaths a year across the contiguous United States between 2006 and 2020, a figure the authors say underscores the need for urgent policy shifts.
“That´s a big number,” lead author Min Zhang, a postdoctoral researcher at Mount Sinai´s Icahn School of Medicine in New York, told AFP. “We found no evidence of a safe threshold for the chronic exposure to wildfire smoke...that´s a very concerning public health problem.
The findings come as President Donald Trump´s government has turned its back on global efforts to tackle human-caused warming -- boosting instead the fossil fuel industry that is its main driver.
“They know what to do to, you know, fight against climate change: you need to promote cleaner energy, electric cars, more funding to do research,” senior author Yaguang Wei, an assistant professor at Mount Sinai´s Icahn School of Medicine in New York, told AFP. But on a more granular level, he added, local governments need to develop early warning systems that anticipate the arrival of dangerous pollutants and deploy portable filters in homes, offices, schools and hospitals. Canada´s record-breaking 2023 wildfires exposed hundreds of millions of people downwind to toxic fumes, yet local authorities have still failed to develop advanced response plans.
