Guest column: What wildfires mean for our health in a changing ... - Bozeman Daily Chronicle

Guest column: What wildfires mean for our health in a changing climate | Guest Columnists | bozemandailychronicle.com

The 2023 Montana wildfire season was slow to start. Average snowpack combined with rain in much of the state, spared an early fire season. Recent hot days and dry fuels, however, have now put MT into active fire season with over 40,000 acres burned by early August. Montana’s average annual temperatures have been getting hotter and are currently 2.7 degrees F warmer than at the start of the Industrial Revolution. This warming fuels wildfires, drought, snowpack loss, and extreme heat.

In late July, Gov. Gianforte asked the federal government to declare a drought disaster for 11 Montana counties. Gianforte anticipated that conditions would “continue to worsen” and stated that fire “officials project an above-normal fire season”. Drought and heat result in more frequent, intense, and longer-lasting wildfires. Extreme heat and wildfires are aggravated by greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. Since the 1980s, the number of acres in the US burned by wildfires has increased three-fold, and climate change has caused at least half of this.

Wildfire smoke has significant effects on human health. Those most affected are pregnant women, children, older adults, people with respiratory or cardiovascular diseases, outdoor workers, and those of low socioeconomic status. Wildland firefighters are particularly at risk. Even in healthy people, exposure to the fine particles present in smoke lead to respiratory inflammation and immune problems. Airborne fine particulates get past our body barriers, such as the blood-brain barrier and the placenta. Birth defects, low birth weight or pre-term births can result. All of our organs can be affected.

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