By Irwin Redlener and Sean Hansen

My latest piece in The Hill is about another public health threat we’re facing: wildfires. As climate change contributes to hotter and drier summers throughout the western United States, we’re seeing increasingly severe blazes each year. But the impacts of wildfires go far beyond the areas out west that are burning: the deadly heatwaves and toxic smoke are being felt across the country, exacerbating chronic health conditions for millions of Americans. 

As we struggle to combat another deadly wave of the pandemic due to the delta variant, we can’t lose sight of the immense threat posed by climate change and severe weather. There are tangible actions we can be taking to help our communities adapt to the changing climate, and lessen the devastating wrought by wildfires for years to come.

“At this point, there can be no doubt that climate change is responsible for exacerbating the conditions that put at least 29 million Americans at risk of wildfires each year. As temperatures in the U.S. West have increased, extreme drought conditions have worsened, leaving dried-out forests as tinderboxes awaiting a spark. This past June was the hottest month ever on record for North America, with the average temperature eclipsing the previous record from June 2012 and nearly 2 degrees warmer than the average temperature between 1991 and 2020.

Unlike other natural disasters, wildfires endanger the health and well-being of populations near and far. Toxic gasses and particulate matter found in smoke from fires in the West can increase the risks of hospitalizations and fatalities from exacerbations of obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and cardiac disease as far away as the East Coast. Last week the Air Quality Index in New York City reached 154 – the worst level in 15 years and unsafe for vulnerable individuals, including pregnant women or those with asthma or COPD.

As the nature and extent of the threat evolve with a changing climate, so too must our ability to manage and mitigate near-term risks. In other words, while we seek to galvanize the world around the urgent need to slow climate change, here are three of many possible mitigation strategies that could help save lives and protect the environment in the near term…”

Let me know if you have any comments or questions by tweeting me at @IrwinRedlenerMD.