Wildfire smoke takes a physical and mental health toll on rural residents, and can be linked to suicides, study shows

Lingering wildfire smoke from Oregon's Archie Creek fire  
(Photo by Jan Pytalski, The Daily Yonder)

Wildfire smoke travels wherever the wind flow takes it, and lingering fires can be physically and emotionally exhausting for residents along the path.

As wildfires become more common, many rural residents struggle to deal with the effects of pervasive air pollution, reports Claire Carlson of The Daily Yonder with John Upton and Kaitlyn Trudeau of Climate Central. "The smoke harms farms and recreation-based businesses, can be psychologically triggering for wildfire survivors, frequently drives residents indoors, and recent research showed it's associated with increases in rural suicides."

Ongoing exposure to wildfire smoke can lead to a litany of health issues. "It exacerbates asthma and worsens infections," the Yonder reports. "Tiny smoke particles move from lungs into bloodstreams and can directly affect brain health, with research out of the University of Montana connecting smoke exposure to the development of dementia."

A study published last fall in the science journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences "linked smoke exposure with increases in suicides among rural populations, though not among urban ones," Carlson, Upton and Trudeau write. David Molitor, a health economist at the University of Illinois, who led the research, which drew on 13 years of smoke and federal suicide data to track mental health effects, told reporters, "In rural areas, we find that smoke days are significantly associated with increases in suicide rates."

But the very nature of wildfire smoke as a smelly, hazy, lingering environment leaves rural residents with an inescapable mental hazard. Colleen Reid, a health geographer and environmental epidemiologist at the University of Colorado, who studies the health effects of wildfire smoke, told the Yonder: "In rural areas, there's likely more people whose livelihoods are based on the land and working outside. We're increasingly seeing mental health impacts. . . . There are some more recent studies where even individuals who were just affected by the smoke could have mental health impacts."