University of Maryland researchers found that the proportion of microscopic air pollution tied to wildfire smoke in prenatal exposure more than doubled from 2003 to 2019, with some states seeing increases of as much as 13%.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Wildfire smoke is accounting for a growing share of the air pollution encountered during pregnancy in the United States, according to new research examining prenatal exposure over nearly two decades.
Researchers at the University of Maryland modeled air pollution across the country from 2003 through 2019 and combined those estimates with birth records to determine how much pollution babies were likely exposed to before birth.
The analysis found that among the air pollution encountered during pregnancy, the share attributable to microscopic particles generated by wildfires more than doubled over the study period.
“The new study by University of Maryland researchers found that out of the air pollution unborn babies are exposed to, the share of exposure to wildfire-generated microscopic air pollution more than doubled between 2003 and 2019,” The Washington Post reported.
The increase was not uniform across the country. In some states, wildfire smoke’s proportion of overall air pollution rose by as much as 13% between 2003 and 2019, according to the study.
The largest increase occurred in the northwestern United States.
Researchers did not evaluate specific health outcomes among the pregnancies and births included in their analysis. However, earlier studies have raised concerns about exposure to fine particulate matter from wildfire smoke.
“The study did not discuss specific health outcomes for the prenatal exposure and births it analyzed, but previous studies have suggested that fine-particulate-matter pollution, known as PM 2.5, caused by wildfires can be more harmful than other forms of air pollution,” The Washington Post reported.
PM 2.5 consists of particles small enough to travel deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. Previous research has associated wildfire smoke with adverse pregnancy outcomes as well as health problems in young children.
“Studies have linked wildfire smoke to poor pregnancy outcomes and a variety of early-childhood health issues. The particles are small enough to enter the lungs and bloodstream, and they have also been linked to lung damage, respiratory disease and cancers,” the report stated.
The findings come as wildfire smoke has increasingly crossed international and state boundaries, periodically creating hazardous air conditions far from the fires themselves.
That problem became particularly visible in July as large wildfires in Canada pushed smoke into the United States and prompted air-quality warnings across more than a dozen states.
Residents in cities including Chicago and Washington, D.C., were at times advised either to remain indoors or use masks because of the deteriorating air quality.
At one point, Canada was dealing with nearly 900 active wildfires, concentrated largely in Ontario, Quebec and the Northwest Territories. Fewer than 100 were classified as “under control.”
President Donald Trump responded to the cross-border smoke in mid-July by threatening additional tariffs against Canada, accusing its government of “Willful Negligence” in its management of forests and brush.
“We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
“This is Willful Negligence, and becoming a yearly occurrence, costing the United States Billions of Dollars, which cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying.”
Members of Congress also raised the issue directly with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Michigan Republican Reps. John James, Jack Bergman, John Moolenaar and Lisa McClain sent a letter criticizing Canada’s handling of the recurring wildfire problem.
“This is the third consecutive year we have had to write to Canadian officials about a crisis that Canada has the tools to prevent and has chosen not to,” the lawmakers wrote.
“If Canada will not manage its forests to prevent these fires, the United States will look elsewhere, and act on our own, to protect our people.”
The University of Maryland findings place those recent smoke events within a longer-term trend, showing that wildfire-generated particulate pollution represented an increasingly significant portion of prenatal air pollution exposure during the 2003-2019 study period.
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