This article was written by Tom Clynes for EDF’s Vital Signs.
When 14-year-old Oscar came home from his school’s field day in June pink-faced and wheezing, his mother, Elizabeth Hauptman, knew something was wrong.
“He told me he’d had to use his inhaler multiple times throughout the day—something that’s not normal for him,” says Hauptman, Moms’ Michigan Field Organizer. “It was supposed to be a celebration, the end of eighth grade. Instead, it turned into anxiety, disappointment, and a trip to urgent care.”
Smoke from Canadian wildfires was the culprit—the second time a distant fire had derailed a major milestone for her son. The first came at a swim meet two years earlier, when heavy smoke from western wildfires blanketed their neighborhood. Despite air quality alerts, Oscar wanted to compete like any other kid.
“He had an asthma attack during the meet,” Hauptman recalls. “We had to pull him out, drive him home, and try to calm him down. It was devastating. He was scared—and so were we.”
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For Hauptman and thousands of other parents across North America, wildfire smoke is no longer a distant or seasonal threat—it’s a chronic, destabilizing part of daily life.
“This is our reality now,” she says. “It’s not just about kids with asthma. It’s about all children breathing in fine particles and petrochemicals. Their lungs are still developing. Their brains are still growing. This isn’t just a nuisance; it’s a serious health threat.”
Like smoking half a pack of cigarettes a day
Wildfire smoke is filled with tiny, toxic particles, which are capable of penetrating deep into the lungs and entering the bloodstream. The smoke also can contain carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and volatile organic compounds that can trigger asthma, inflame airways, and increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Decades of research show that breathing wildfire smoke sharply increases the risk of heart and lung disease, cancer, and even early death. May-Lin Wilgus, a physician and researcher at UCLA, says that inhaling wildfire smoke is a lot like chain-smoking. On days when the Air Quality Index climbs into the 100–200 range, Wilgus told NPR, the dose of fine particulate pollution is similar to smoking a quarter to half a pack of cigarettes a day.
Children, whose still-developing lungs are easily damaged by fine particles, are among the most vulnerable to wildfire smoke, even if they don’t have pre-existing conditions like asthma. The American Lung Association reports that kids exposed to smoky air suffer higher rates of coughing, wheezing, bronchitis, and trips to the hospital compared with children not exposed to wildfire smoke.
The risks don’t stop there. Older adults, pregnant people and anyone with chronic heart or lung disease face serious threats as well.
Long-term exposure has been linked to cognitive decline, increased cancer risk, and other chronic illnesses. And the danger travels. Smoke can drift thousands of miles, affecting people far from the flames. For example, smoke from 2023 Canadian wildfires was traced as far as New York City and triggered a 17% increase in asthma-related emergency department visits in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
How wildfire smoke affects children
Maria Finnegan moved back to New Hampshire to raise her son in the same outdoor paradise she loved as a child. But the reality has been far different. “I’ve spent half the summer trying to figure out how to keep him inside,” she says.
Her four-year-old doesn’t have asthma, but this summer’s wildfire smoke has changed his life. “The buildings at his summer camp don’t have air conditioning,” Finnegan says. “Like most older buildings in New Hampshire, it wasn’t built for wildfire summers.”
“There was one awful week when the smoke got trapped in our valley. The air quality was in the red, right where he was playing.” She pleaded with the staff to keep the children indoors. “The counselors were doing their best, but there’s such a huge information gap. People just don’t realize how harmful this can be for kids.”
Finnegan herself has a chronic condition called dysautonomia, which makes her especially sensitive to heat and polluted air. “On bad air quality days, I struggle to breathe. I can feel it in my lungs, in my throat,” she says. “It’s not just discomfort. It’s dangerous.”
Why wildfires are getting worse
“We’re harvesting the results of a century of mismanagement [of forests] combined with climate-driven heat and drought,” says Eric Holst, who directs wildfire resilience at Environmental Defense Fund, the global nonprofit. Climate change is drying out forests by raising temperatures and altering rainfall patterns, leaving them more vulnerable to fire. Meanwhile, decades of suppressing natural fires have left dense fuel loads, creating a tinder box for any spark. Warmer days are extending fire seasons; in parts of California, the fire risk now stretches across much of the year.
A recent study in Nature Communications Earth and Environment estimated that from 2006 to 2020, climate-fueled wildfire smoke caused about 15,000 deaths in the U.S., with a staggering $160 billion in economic losses.
Holst’s team at EDF is advocating for federal legislation that can help tame wildfires, like the Fix Our Forests Act. The bipartisan bill proposed in the Senate incorporates science-based recommendations from a national fire commission on how to build resilience and reduce catastrophic wildfire events, such as prescribed burns and fuel management.
The organization is also supporting FireSat, a satellite-based detection system that could identify new fire starts within 20 minutes. The prototype FireSat satellite launched in March 2025. The full constellation—which may eventually comprise more than 50 satellites—is expected to be fully operational by 2030, enabling global coverage. “The goal isn’t just fast response,” says Holst. “It’s smarter response. Some fires are ecologically beneficial—clearing out underbrush, recycling nutrients, and creating habitat—but others threaten lives and property and must be suppressed.”
EDF is also pushing for climate solutions to reduce the global warming that’s driving the crisis.
Parents petition Congress
At the grassroots level, Moms Clean Air Force is arming parents with science and tools—and a sense of agency. “We call it nap-time activism,” says Hauptman. “Fifteen minutes to learn about an issue, sign a petition, or contact a lawmaker. And it works. I’ve had members of Congress say, ‘Elizabeth, I got a hundred emails about this issue.’”
Finnegan agrees. “This work gives me hope. People want their kids to be healthy. When they understand what’s at stake, they step up.”
Back in Michigan, Hauptman’s son checks the air quality on his weather app before making plans with friends. “He says, ‘Hey dudes, it’s a bad-air day—don’t go outside.’”
“He’s 14,” Hauptman says. “He shouldn’t have to carry that burden. But here we are.”
Hauptman says her work as a climate and health advocate helps her stay hopeful. But it’s not easy.
“We’re not asking for miracles,” she says. “We just want our kids to breathe clean air. To go outside and play. To be safe.”
Tell Congress: Protect Our Ability to Prepare for and Recover From Severe Weather Threats