Wildfire Smoke Contributes To Tens Of Thousands Of U.S. Deaths Annually

THURSDAY, Feb. 5, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Tens of thousands of Americans are expected to die each year from exposure to wildfire smoke, a new study projects.

Wildfire smoke could contribute to as many as 24,100 deaths every year, researchers estimate in the journal Science Advances.

“This study shows that long-term exposure to (particle pollution) from wildfire smoke poses a growing and serious threat to public health nationwide,” lead researcher Min Zhang, a postdoctoral fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, said in a news release.

Wildfires are expected to become more frequent and intense around the world due to climate change, researchers said in background notes.

The smoke from these wildfires contains high levels of fine particle pollution, which has been linked to increased risk of heart, lung and brain disease, they added.

To estimate the impact on human health, researchers compared satellite data on wildfire smoke exposure across the U.S. to deaths that occurred between 2006 and 2020.

Results showed that about 5,594 additional deaths occur in the U.S. for every 0.1 microgram per cubic meter (µg/m3) annual increase in particle pollution from wildfire smoke.

“A 0.1 µg/m3 increase in annual wildfire smoke (particle pollution) is entirely plausible, as the national average during the study period was 0.43 µg/m3 with a standard deviation of 0.48 µg/m3,” the research team wrote.

Essentially, there’s no safe level of long-term exposure to wildfire-related air pollution, researchers concluded.

Further, smoke can travel thousands of miles, so people don’t need to live near a wildfire to be affected.

New York City residents learned this in 2023, when smoke from fires raging in Canada enveloped the city in a hazy, choking smog.

These findings are particularly concerning given that President Donald Trump has called global warming “a hoax,” and has acted on that belief by cutting funding for climate change research and withdrawing the U.S. from international climate accords.

“Despite the increasing wildfires driven by the rapidly changing climate, the shift in U.S. climate policy starting in 2025 is halting federal climate action and jeopardizing global mitigation efforts, posing a critical and underappreciated risk to climate progress,” the research team concluded.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on how wildfire smoke affects the body.

SOURCES: Mount Sinai, news release, Feb. 4, 2026; Science Advances, Feb. 4, 2026