"The respiratory and cardiovascular problems that come with smoke inhalation are a multibillion-dollar drag on the healthcare system."
"Los Angeles has experienced some of the world’s worst air quality this week as smoke from massive wildfires blankets the region and threatens the health of far more people than the fires themselves. And that will end up adding to the economic toll.
Almost 180,000 have been forced to flee their homes and at least 10,000 structures have been destroyed or damaged. The fires are projected to cause $20 billion in insured losses, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co analysts. That damage projection doesn’t even factor in the likely high health impacts of the smoke, which cause an estimated billions in hidden health-linked costs in the US annually.
It’s hard to overstate just how dangerous wildfire smoke is. “There are many pollutants of concern in wildfire smoke,” including ozone, carbon monoxide and other toxic gases, says Debra Hendrickson, a pediatrician in Reno who wrote the book The Air They Breathe about how climate change threatens children’s health. Small particles in the smoke, called particulate matter 2.5 or PM2.5 — and even smaller ultra-fine particles known as PM0.1 — also pose a threat in large part because they can penetrate deep into the lungs, “enter the bloodstream, and reach every organ of the body,” says Hendrickson."
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