Last month’s wildfire smoke plume in New York, New Jersey comparable to secondhand smoking

The public health impact of the Canadian wildfire smoke plume that smothered the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area earlier this summer was comparable to second-hand cigarette smoke, according to new research led by Rutgers University.

“The wildfires in Canada gave us a sobering demonstration of the climate change impacts on air quality,” said Memo Cedeño Laurent, assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health and director of the Rutgers Climate Adaptive and Restorative Environments Lab in a statement about the research findings.

The research was conducted by faculty, post-docs and students, according to a statement about the findings, in collaboration with other academic institutions including Harvard Medical School and the University of South Carolina.

Researchers collected and analyzed particle-sized samples during the peak of smoke accumulation over the city in early June. Real-time measurements were taken to monitor the fluctuating levels of air pollutants, the statement says.

“During the peak of the incident on June 7, the average concentration of fine particulate matter from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. was 330 micrograms per cubic meter, akin to the secondhand smoke in bars before smoking bans,” the statement continues. Populations like the elderly and those with respiratory conditions are particularly vulnerable to poor air quality.

Along with public health concerns, researchers noted the drastic impact the smoke had on visibility. At the peak, smoke that reached the New Jersey campus “absorbed 75 times more light than that absorbed by clean ambient air affecting the local climate,” said Kelesidis in the statement.

Researchers noted how this disruption of light can further exacerbate the effects of climate change. Kelesidis is studying how particulate matter from wildfires increase the light absorption and scattering in the atmosphere, leading to further temperature variations. The effect of particulate matter from such incidents is compared to other greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, according to the statement.

Researchers plan to publish the full findings in peer-reviewed scientific papers in coming months.