Smoke particulates from wildfires could lead to between 4,000 and 9,000 premature deaths and cost $36 to $82 billion per year in the United States, according to new research by Cornell, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST) and the University of Houston.
Smoke particulates from wildfires could lead to between 4,000 and 9,000 premature deaths and cost $36 to $82 billion per year in the United States, according to new research by Cornell, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST) and the University of Houston.
The study, “Quantifying the Premature Mortality and Economic Loss From Wildfire-Induced PM2.5 in the Contiguous U.S.,” was published June 1 in Science of the Total Environment.
“We think of automobile tailpipes and factory emissions polluting our air,” said Oliver Gao, the Howard Simpson Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, a senior author on the study. “We don’t necessarily think about air pollution from natural sources like wildfires.
“Climate change is leading to weather extremes like more storms and hurricanes, but it can also lead to more wildfires,” Gao said. “The Quebec wildfires in early June affected human health hundreds of miles away in the distant cities New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington.”
Read more at: Cornell University
Smoke from wildfires burning in Canada shroud the Sage Hall tower, foreground, and McGraw Tower on June 7. On a clear day, Cayuga Lake would be visible. Wildfires can affect human health hundreds of miles away in distant places, professor Oliver Gao said in a recent study. (Photo Credit: Jason Koski/Cornell University)
