Wildfires in recent years have reversed some of the progress made in eliminating air pollution, new study suggests
The smoke from wildfires in recent years has been so intense that it is decreasing air quality in the majority of the U.S., reversing some of the improvements made to air quality in the last several decades, according to new research.
Wildfire smoke in the U.S. had a “notable influence” on recent air quality trends in nearly 75% of states in the continental U.S., despite air quality that has been steadily improving over the past several decades, largely due to policies like the Clean Air Act, according to a study published in Nature on Wednesday.
Wildfires have been increasing in size, frequency and intensity in recent years – at the same time that progress in air quality improvement has stagnated across much of the U.S., with some regions reporting rising levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), the study found.