The new field of "smoke ecology" examines how wildfire smoke perturbs wild places and animals — and what might be done to prevent its worst mayhem.

This summer millions of people across the upper Midwest and Northeast United States experienced record-breaking air pollution caused by Canadian wildfires. From a public health perspective, it is crit...

More than 1 billion people per year were exposed to heat waves and fire pollution at the same time from 2010-2019, a sharp jump from the decade before it, according to a new study that highlights the growing public health crisis caused by global warming. The research, published in Science Advances on Wednesday, is the largest global assessment to date of how many people have been exposed to heat waves and fires—particularly wildfires—at the same time. “There are two reasons why the total number of days people spend exposed to both hazards can increase: more people are exposed, or people experience these conditions more often,” said lead author Yao Wu, a postdoctoral research fellow at Monash University in Australia, in a written statement to Inside Climate News. “Our findings show that the second reason plays a much bigger role,” Wu added, noting that “the problem is growing mainly because people are experiencing these two hazards together more often, not simply because there are more people.” Researchers used detailed environmental data on hourly temperature, fire emissions and air quality, along with population information to map where and when people faced both hazards. They found that the number of people exposed to...

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Over the summer, many Americans smelled and saw smoke from Canadian wildfires. Scientists behind a new field of study are asking how smoke like that affects wildlife. NPR's Ari Daniel has the story. ARI DANIEL, BYLINE: Olivia Sanderfoot is waiting for me on a flower-freckled hillside in Amherst in western Massachusetts. She listens for a moment, and a volley of birdsong flutters forth. (SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS CHIRPING) OLIVIA SANDERFOOT: So you can hear an eastern wood pewee in the background. Oh, that's a goldfinch. That's a downy woodpecker. It's just magical. DANIEL: Sanderfoot spends her time investigating what happens to these and other birds when a plume of wildfire smoke rolls in, an increasingly common occurrence, even in places untouched by flames. SANDERFOOT: Smoke can blow hundreds to thousands of miles away from that burn site. That means that the footprint of a smoke event greatly exceeds that of any fire. DANIEL: Sanderfoot's curiosity about smoke emerged in 2018 when she was living in Seattle and wildfires blazed in eastern Washington. SANDERFOOT: The air smelled acrid. DANIEL: She was told it was a one-time event, yet the same thing happened two years later. SANDERFOOT: I remember walking...

For a few days this summer, millions of people living far from the edge of the wilderness were reminded of the combustive power of wildfires when smoke from uncontrolled infernos burning through the forests of Ontario billowed across the border into the US. Unfortunately, it’s likely that such intermittent hazy days are here to stay. “We’re in a fire deficit,” explains Tyler McIntosh, a PhD student who studies wildfires with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. “We’ve had a lot less fire on the landscape than we theoretically should have over recent history.”...

Olivia Sanderfoot stands on a flower-freckled hillside in Amherst in Western Massachusetts. She listens for a moment — and a volley of birdsong flutters forth. An Eastern Wood-Pewee. A goldfinch. A downy woodpecker. "It's just magical," she says with an air of reverence. There are birds foraging among the flowers. Fluffy fledglings are darting about, learning the ways of the world. "Every day that I get to start birding is a good day," she says. "If you want to get the widest range of species and hear the most songs, you want to be out here in the morning." For new discoveries, everyday mysteries, and the science behind the headlines, follow NPR’s Short Wave podcast. Sanderfoot, a global change ecologist at Cornell University, knows that for the birds that live here, not every morning is this idyllic. Over the summer, this area was suffused with toxic smoke from distant wildfires in Canada. It's an increasingly common problem, even in places untouched by flames. Fire season is starting earlier, lasting later, burning more land — and as a result, producing far more smoke. "Smoke can blow hundreds to thousands of miles away from that burn site," Sanderfoot explains. "That means that...

Olivia Sanderfoot stands on a flower-freckled hillside in Amherst in Western Massachusetts. She listens for a moment — and a volley of birdsong flutters forth. An Eastern Wood-Pewee. A goldfinch. A downy woodpecker. "It's just magical," she says with an air of reverence. There are birds foraging among the flowers. Fluffy fledglings are darting about, learning the ways of the world. "Every day that I get to start birding is a good day," she says. "If you want to get the widest range of species and hear the most songs, you want to be out here in the morning." For new discoveries, everyday mysteries, and the science behind the headlines, follow NPR’s Short Wave podcast. Sanderfoot, a global change ecologist at Cornell University, knows that for the birds that live here, not every morning is this idyllic. Over the summer, this area was suffused with toxic smoke from distant wildfires in Canada. It's an increasingly common problem, even in places untouched by flames. Fire season is starting earlier, lasting later, burning more land — and as a result, producing far more smoke. "Smoke can blow hundreds to thousands of miles away from that burn site," Sanderfoot explains. "That means that...

Clarity's CEO and CTO share new wildfire smoke monitoring features, including satellite connectivity, an extended CO range, and expanded public data sharing.

Wildfire smoke is dangerous and can be deadly. Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in smoke can reach the lungs and bloodstream and lead to cardiovascular and respiratory illness. Climate change is intensifying wildfire conditions and contributing to worse wildfire smoke and related health effects across the U.S. Wildfire smoke exposure has surged across the U.S. in recent years. The average person breathed in four times more smoke PM2.5 each year during 2020-2025 than during 2006–2019. Through mid-September, 2026 ranks as the third highest year during 2006-2026 for per-person average smoke PM2.5 exposure in the U.S. Canadian wildfires sent smoke far into the Upper Midwest and Northeast and contributed to persistent unhealthy smoke conditions in the Pacific Northwest. Studies show that climate change is already adding to the U.S. death toll from wildfire smoke, which would become even more deadly without deeper cuts to heat-trapping pollution. This Climate Matters analysis is based on open-access data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). See Methodology for details. VISUALS FULL REPORT Climate change worsens wildfire conditions and harmful smoke The science is clear. Human-caused climate change has: fueled more fire activity in the western U.S., increased the frequency and intensity of fire weather in...

See what's next for the only professional-grade air sensor on the EPA Fire & Smoke Map. Live 30-minute product update with Q&A from Clarity co-founders on Sept 30th, 2026. Register today!

After three years helping Maui wildfire survivors track their health progress, Dr. Martina L. Kamaka is used to seeing high levels of heavy metals in their bodies. A family medicine doctor, Kamaka is one of the physicians helping with the Maui Wildfire Exposure Study, a multi-year effort from the University of Hawai‘i to chronicle the immediate and long-term health impacts of one of the deadliest wildfires in U.S. history. In the months after the August 2023 fires, Kamaka helped study participants understand their results on a range of medical tests, including urine tests for 24 metals. Many of them far exceeded typical levels. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that was really normal,” she said. “It’s not unusual to see them be off-the-chart.” Now, she is a co-author on a new paper, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that finds those same heavy metals could be hindering survivors’ breathing. The Maui wildfires killed at least 102 people, displaced thousands and razed the town of Lahaina—which is still struggling to rebuild three years later. Between six and 18 months after the fires, University of Hawai‘i researchers tested a cohort of 1,400 residents across the island...

UC Berkeley’s Dr. David J. X. González on what the recent reversal of the “Endangerment Finding” means for public health.

Wildfire smoke is usually discussed as an airborne pollutant and a threat to human health. But when smoke and rain coincide, nutrients released by burned landscapes rain back down. A new study finds t...

Mutual aid groups that started giving out PPEs during COVID are now loaning air purifiers and distributing masks to fume-addled communities

As climate change drives more frequent and intense wildfires, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have published two large-scale studies showing that wildfire smoke may pose gre...

As climate change drives more frequent and intense wildfires, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have published two large-scale studies showing that wildfire smoke may pose greater health risks than other sources of air pollution, with higher risks of hospitalization for cardiovascular and respiratory disease and poorer survival among patients with lung cancer. The studies, led by first author Min Zhang, PhD, and senior author Yaguang Wei, PhD, provide some of the strongest evidence to date that the source of air pollution matters, not just the amount. Published in Nature Communications and The Lancet Oncology, the studies examined the long-term health effects of fine particulate matter from wildfires, known as PM2.5, a mixture of microscopic airborne particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. Across both investigations, the researchers found that wildfire-related PM2.5 was associated with greater health risks per unit of exposure than PM2.5 from non-wildfire sources. The findings come as wildfire smoke increasingly affects communities far beyond traditional fire-prone regions, exposing tens of millions of people across the United States to elevated levels of air pollution. Wildfire smoke is no longer a regional environmental issue. It is becoming a nationwide...

Wildfire smoke and extreme heat – increasingly the new norm – each have their own harmful effects on pregnant people and babies, including preterm birth and low birthweight. Now University of Maryland School of Public Health (UMD SPH) researchers will lead a $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to examine how the combined experience of these hazards affects maternal health in the United States. We aim to identify which pollutant combinations and what time periods during pregnancy matter most and to map out how risk looks across different areas." Dr. Jennifer Stowell, study's principal investigator, environmental epidemiologist and assistant professor in SPH's Department of Global, Environmental and Occupational Health "What we learn from this research will provide crucial information for clinical guidance, improved services in under-resourced perinatal care regions, such as rural areas, and better early-warning systems for high-risk groups like low income and minority populations." Drawing data from 6.5 million births over two decades, Stowell and her colleagues will measure exposure to extreme heat, wildfire smoke particles (PM2.5) and other pollutants against the incidence of serious pregnancy complications such as hypertension and gestational diabetes. Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) affect...