What's in Wildfire Smoke and How it Hurts Us

Wildfire smoke really is different from other pollution in the damage it inflicts on our bodies. It contains dangerous particulate matter that we breathe into our lungs, and scientists are urgently calling for more research to understand the health effects of increasingly frequent exposures. They’re also worried that the widely used air quality index is insufficient to alert us to the particular threat of wildfire smoke, which early research suggests may be more harmful than other types of air pollution.

“Right now, we don’t have a good understanding of what the long-term effects of prolonged exposures to wildfire smoke are,” said Ana Rappold, an epidemiologist at the Environmental Protection Agency. Read more from STAT News here.