Wildfires now the dominant contributor to unhealthy levels of air pollution for pregnant women in the US
Wildfires are well-known health risks. Now, in a new Frontiers in Environmental Health study, researchers in the U.S. have—for the first time—evaluated how prenatal PM2.5 exposure has changed over space and time on a national scale and what role wildfires play in shaping these trends.
Recent research found that wildfires are now the primary driver of unhealthy air pollution levels for pregnant women in the United States. A new study published in Frontiers in Environmental Health examined how exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) changed over time across the country, and determined that wildfire smoke has more than doubled its role in causing high-pollution days during pregnancy.
In the 2003-2019 period, overall prenatal PM2.5 exposure decreased by around 34% on average, reflecting major improvements in air quality. However, wildfire smoke became the dominant contributor to unhealthy exposure days, accounting for an estimated 65% of exceedance days by the end of the study. The contribution of wildfire PM2.5 increased from 3.7% to 8.2% of total prenatal pollution.
Regions in the Pacific Northwest, Western states, and rural low-income areas saw the greatest increases in wildfire PM2.5 impacts. Overall, this shift means that pollution control efforts have been offset by wildfire smoke, and pregnant women in certain communities are particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of wildfire-caused air pollution.
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