Wildfire smoke far more dangerous to health than (previously) thought, say scientists

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/19/wildfire-smoke-far-more-dangerous-than-thought-say-scientists

Choking smoke spewed by wildfires is far more dangerous than previously thought, a new study has found, with death tolls from short-term exposure to fine particulates underestimated by 93%.

Researchers found that 535 people in Europe died on average each year between 2004 and 2022 as a result of breathing in the tiny toxic particles known as PM2.5 that are released when wildfires rage.

Under standard methods, which assume PM2.5 from wildfires is as deadly as from other sources, such as traffic, they would have expected just 38 deaths a year.
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“Our paper shows evidence that – although it happens less often – the health impact for the same amount of particles is stronger for wildfire particles,” she added. (Prof Cathryn Tonne, an environmental epidemiologist at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and co-author of the study.)

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