“Our message is: Wildfire smoke is very dangerous. Other scientists who have studied the death toll from wildfire smoke were not surprised by the findings. “Nobody’s going to have ‘wildfire death’ on their death certificate unless the fire actually burned them or a tree fell on them or something like that,” said Jerrett. They also included deaths related to falls and transport accidents — which are unlikely to be linked to wildfire smoke — to ensure their other observations weren't biased. But he said the county-level data could have led to over or underestimates because wildfire smoke is very dynamic.

Source: ABC News February 04, 2026 22:45 UTC