A new study says wildfire smoke is stalling or reversing our progress for clean air. It's not just a California issue but a growing trend nationwide.
Researchers from Stanford did the study and the data is from 2000 to 2022.
In the year 2000, the Environmental Protection Agency put in sensors to measure particulate matter from smoke smaller than a strand of human hair, that can seep into our lungs and cause health issues.
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Dr. Marshall Burke from Stanford’s School of Sustainability told NBC Bay Area that for at least the first 15 years of the new century, those pollutants were declining.
But then we get to 2016, the trends start to unravel especially out in the west. With extreme fire behavior, the smoke drifts, concentrations of pm 2.5 go up, our air quality is impacted just like the day in 2020, when the Bay Area skies turned orange and what the region has been seeing this past week.
Researchers were surprised to find that 75% of U.S states lost a significant amount of progress that was made towards cleaner air.
To read the full study, visit stanford.edu.
Cinthia Pimentel has more in the video above.
