The BulleTin • Thursday, OcTOBer 21, 2021 A3
LOCAL, STATE & REGION
Study: Smoke harms more people in the Eastern U.S.
BY KASHA PATEL
The Washington Post
A curious haze blanketed the sky
across the eastern half of the United
States on July 20.
Sunsets appeared redder than nor-
mal; the atmosphere looked gray and
dense; and air quality plummeted.
People from Washington, D.C., to
Pittsburgh to New York snapped pic-
tures of the abnormal hues — only to
learn that the cause originated from
wildfires nearly 3,000 miles away.
As large fires smolder in the West,
the smoke can travel across the coun-
try, blanketing large population cen-
ters. Now, a recent study shows that
smoke, from both Western wildfires
and local sources, may be more harm-
ful to residents in the Eastern U.S. than
many think.
Over most of the past decade, re-
searchers found that about three-quar-
ters of all smoke-related cases of
asthma visits to emergency depart-
ments and deaths occurred east of
the Rocky Mountains, due to higher
population densities. Incidences of
asthma-related hospital visits were the
highest from April to August.
“Smoke is not just a Western prob-
lem. We think there might be a lack of
awareness in the East because you’re
not in proximity to these large wild-
fires, and they don’t really impact your
day-to-day,” said Katelyn O’Dell, lead
author of the study and postdoctoral
research scientist at George Washing-
ton University.
Fires emit a mix of pollutants that
negatively affect people’s health when
inhaled. The researchers looked at the
effects of a pollutant called PM2.5,
or particulate matter with diameters
smaller than 2.5 microns. These tiny
particles can enter lungs and exacer-
bate or lead to numerous health prob-
lems, from respiratory illnesses to
heart disease.
“We have decades of research and
have shown air pollution wreaks havoc
on our bodies. I think we should be
worried about breathing in wildfire
smoke and the effects on our over-
all health, including cardiopulmo-
Julie Jacobson/aP file
In this July 20 photo, the Met Life and Chrysler buildings glow through a thick haze hanging over Manhattan, in New York. Wildfires in the
American West, including an Oregon fire that was the largest in the U.S., created hazy skies as far away as New York.
nary adverse health effects,” said Erin
Landguth, who studies the effects of
wildfire smoke on respiratory health
at University of Montana and was not
involved in the study.
The perils of wildfire smoke are
relatively well-explored in the West,
where skies are regularly shrouded
in a haze during fire season. Land-
guth’s research found that smoke from
wildfires in Montana can increase
influenza cases months later in the
state. Another recent study showed
that fine particulate matter in wild-
fire smoke was linked to an increase
in COVID-19 cases in California and
Washington state.
As Western fire seasons have inten-
sified in recent decades, the eastern
half of the country has increasingly felt
their effects too.
On July 20, major cities including
Washington, Baltimore, Boston and
New York were affected by the massive
billowing plumes stretching across the
country. New York endured its worst
air quality in 14 years.
“We project that smoke or its
fires are going to be the dominant
source of these [PM2.5] particles in
the United States by the end of the
21st century,” said O’Dell. “We have
this increasing threat to our air qual-
ity and health of these wildfires and
smoke, and so we wanted to try and
understand and quantify the bur-
den that smoke poses to health in the
United States.”
O’Dell and colleagues at Colorado
State University analyzed smoke and
health data from 2006 to 2018. They
used observations from satellites and
ground instruments to obtain daily
local estimates of PM2.5 as well as
track the location of smoke in the
atmosphere. Using existing data on
asthma emergency department visits,
they compared the number of people
who went to the hospital for asthma
on smoky days vs. nonsmoky days.
The team found that the West,
which contained higher smoke and
particulate matter concentrations
since they were closer to fires, showed
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a larger percentage of asthma-related
emergency room visits on smoky
days. In some years, smoke-related
visits constituted more than 1% of an-
nual asthma visits.
In the East, the percent of annual
asthma-related hospital visits tied
to smoke were a smaller percentage
— about 0.3 to 0.6%. However, due
to larger population centers in the
East, the total number of asthma-re-
lated hospital visits tied to smoke was
higher, even though smoke particle
concentrations were lower on average.
The exceptions were 2017 and
2018, when the majority of smoke-re-
lated asthma cases occurred in the
West as fires affected some of its ma-
jor cities. Projections indicate that
wildfire seasons such as 2018, the
deadliest and most destructive on re-
cord in California, may be more com-
mon in the future.
The health effects of long-term
smoke exposure were also greater in
the East. The team found that about
6,300 extra deaths occurred each year,
with the most cases occurring in the
most populated states. Less than a
third — about 1,700 — of the deaths
occurred in the West.
“This is not surprising at all,” said
Rodney Weber, an atmospheric chem-
ist at the Georgia Institute of Tech-
nology who was not involved in the
study. “A lot of the smoke disperses out
where it’s not very easily detectable.”
Weber said people tend to only no-
tice smoke-induced pollution in the
East when skies are hazy or the sun is
red, but smoke particles can remain
in the background at lower levels and
pose a danger.
Weber also noted that wildfire
smoke can carry potentially harmful
organic molecules, which could in-
fluence health. Studies show organic
molecules become more toxic as they
linger in the air and age. The mole-
cules become oxidized and dissolve
more readily in human bodies, in-
cluding inside the lungs.
“This smoke could be much more
insidious because it could spread over
much greater areas eventually [and]
expose large populations to a source
that’s quite toxic, and the exposure
could be for quite a while,” said Weber.
O’Dell and her colleagues looked at
a handful of hazardous air pollutants
contained in smoke in their study,
but the team said further research is
needed with additional species for a
fuller understanding.
Overall, researchers agreed that
people should pay closer attention
to the air quality index from the En-
vironmental Protection Agency and
local authorities and take personal
measures to protect themselves from
smoke pollutants, such as wearing
N95 masks and fortifying air filtration
systems.
“We have to start thinking about
what we’re breathing inside our
homes, not only outside, which means
we need to start thinking about air
quality filters — all of this public
awareness around our air quality,”
said Landguth. “Maybe some of these
studies will just help incrementally
add to that talk.”
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