Heat and smoke from wildfires are even more harmful when combined, study finds
The News
In California, days that saw both extreme heat and wildfire smoke saw a disproportionate number of hospitalizations for heart and lung conditions, according to a new study. The research highlights the public health dangers of distinct climate threats that can have a compound effect when they occur simultaneously.
The research, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, found that this cumulative effect was greater in communities with lower levels of income, education, health insurance coverage, and tree cover.
Smoke from the wildfires turned the sky orange in the Bay Area in September 2020.Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York TimesAs humans warm the world planet, heat waves and forest fires are increasing. serious and of longer duration in the American West. This also means they are more likely to overlap. Researchers estimated that two-thirds of California's land area simultaneously experienced searing heat and thick wildfire smoke at some point during the state's record fire year in 2020.
Both dangers are harmful. to health: heat stress increases heart pressure and inhaling smoke from forest fires can worsen lung problems. The new study, led by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, examined the health effects when the two threats appear in tandem.
On unusually hot and smoky days, staying indoors doesn't always help, and certainly not for people who don't have air conditioners or air purifiers, Tarik said...
In California, days that saw both extreme heat and wildfire smoke saw a disproportionate number of hospitalizations for heart and lung conditions, according to a new study. The research highlights the public health dangers of distinct climate threats that can have a compound effect when they occur simultaneously.
The research, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, found that this cumulative effect was greater in communities with lower levels of income, education, health insurance coverage, and tree cover.
Smoke from the wildfires turned the sky orange in the Bay Area in September 2020.Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York TimesAs humans warm the world planet, heat waves and forest fires are increasing. serious and of longer duration in the American West. This also means they are more likely to overlap. Researchers estimated that two-thirds of California's land area simultaneously experienced searing heat and thick wildfire smoke at some point during the state's record fire year in 2020.
Both dangers are harmful. to health: heat stress increases heart pressure and inhaling smoke from forest fires can worsen lung problems. The new study, led by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, examined the health effects when the two threats appear in tandem.
On unusually hot and smoky days, staying indoors doesn't always help, and certainly not for people who don't have air conditioners or air purifiers, Tarik said...
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