wildfire smoke

Communities in Colorado and Utah are reporting drops in tourism as fires burn nearby and smoke floats in.

High temperatures gripping large portions of the west are exacerbating poor air quality.

Firefighters will now be able to use N95 masks on the fireline – building on a more limited, voluntary rollout of masking that started last fall. There will also be expanded access to showers, time for routine gear cleaning and so-called “clean air recovery periods” that can limit other risks.

Wildfire smoke is associated with a growing list of health impacts. New research now ties it to reproductive harm in bulls – a finding with implications for humans.

Longer wildfire seasons can blanket communities in smoke. Summer heat records continue to rise. Drought remains a persistent concern for water supplies, agriculture and ecosystems.

Growth has been strong over the last year despite a great deal of uncertainty last spring over the future of the ambitious effort.

A new report from the American Lung Association finds about half of U.S. children are living in areas with unhealthy air quality, and several Mountain West cities rank among the most polluted in the country.

A coalition of environmental groups is suing the Environmental Protection Agency, alleging the agency missed a key deadline tied to a stricter national standard for soot pollution. The case could affect air quality protections across the Mountain West.

When wildland firefighters are on prescribed fires, they’re breathing the same smoke and facing many of the same hazards found on wildfires, but they don’t get the same hazard pay. That could soon change.

Using new data, a team of scientists has assembled one of the first comprehensive analyses of emissions from homes burned in wildfires. What they found is that such pollution is serious, and in some cases can exceed emissions from all other human sources.