By Dr. Alan Barton –
On September 11, the 24th anniversary of the tragic attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, playwright Dan O’Brien published an op-ed in the New York Times recounting how he survived both the 9/11 attacks in New York and the Pacific Palisades fire in Los Angeles earlier this year. In between these events, both O’Brien and his wife suffered bouts of cancer. A series of graphics embedded in the article included these quotes from O’Brien:
Years after 9/11, my doctor told me that an “environmental insult” could have caused my cancer. It’s the kind of thing that can happen after breathing in the smoke and ash of trees and debris and burning structures. We never knew if the smoke from 9/11 caused my wife’s cancer — or mine. But 24 years later, we are breathing it again. … I couldn’t help but think about the cause of our cancers as Los Angeles burned that first night. I was as afraid of the smoke as I was of the fire. … While 9/11 was a once-in-a-generation catastrophe, cataclysmic fires have grown commonplace. More and more of us are breathing poisoned and poisonous air, fleeing from the cyclical disasters of ecological collapse.
O’Brien’s op-ed is one in an increasing number of articles published about the harmful effects that wildfires and wildfire smoke have on human health, echoing lessons researchers are learning as they study how large, high intensity wildfires are affecting populations living nearby — and also far away from where the fires burn.
Large, high intensity wildfires are a multifaceted tragedy. Foresters assess these catastrophes by talking about values: what are the things that people value that wildfires can affect? The three most salient values that are commonly reported when assessing the damages associated with wildfires are the economic cost, loss of human life, and number of buildings (including homes) destroyed by the fire. All of these have a tragic impact on individuals, families and communities where wildfires blow through.
The impacts from a fire extend to many other values beyond the big three. Some of these impacts are still not well understood, although it is known that most of these impacts last well beyond when a fire is extinguished. Long-term effects represent the substantial costs families face as they try to recover what they once had — a home, a business, neighbors and friends, livestock, recreational opportunities, and a sense of security in their home and community.
Short-term effects that occur while a fire is burning are also disruptive to communities, and to individuals. One serious and troublesome effect of a wildfire is the smoke it produces, and how the smoke affects communities near and far from the fire. To those who are near a fire, the smoke is hard to avoid. They breathe air with many particles suspended in it, and the composition of these particles depends on what is being burned. Breathing wildfire smoke means you are potentially inhaling many things that harm your health. Smoke from large wildfires can travel over very long distances, as well. In the western U.S. in the 21st century, you may smell smoke in your yard and assume a fire is burning nearby, only to discover that the fire actually is several states and hundreds of miles away. Breathing this smoke can also be harmful.
Researchers do not fully understand how wildfire smoke affects human organs, including lungs, blood vessels, the heart, and the brain. However, a lot is known about the harmful effects from cigarette smoke and from urban smog, and as the prevalence of large-scale, destructive wildfires increases, researchers are learning more about how breathing wildfire smoke affects human beings. One conclusion arrived at is that smoke from controlled burns generally is less harmful than smoke from large, catastrophic wildfires. Controlled burns are smaller, less intensive, lower temperature, and well-planned. They generally burn grasses and understory vegetation, and combustion generally is more complete than in wildfire, reducing the potential for harmful particulate matter suspended in the smoke. Fire managers also take great precautions, which includes a smoke management plan to ensure that smoke blows away from population centers. Large wildfires, on the other hand, burn hotter, engulf a wide range of vegetation and potentially buildings and other human-made elements, and produce large quantities of smoke that may blow directly into populated areas.
Residents near where a wildfire is burning can take some steps to improve the quality of the air they inhale, including staying indoors with doors and windows shut, running air purifiers with good filters, and wearing facemasks that filter the air. For more information on keeping safe from wildfire smoke, see the recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Link to New York Times article by Dan O’Brien:
Link to evidence on smoke from controlled burns:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/rm/pubs_journals/rmrs/sycu/2024/sycu101_2024_smoke.pdf
Link to the CDC Wildfire webpage:
https://www.cdc.gov/wildfires/safety/how-to-safely-stay-safe-during-a-wildfire.html