This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Wildfires in the United States are getting bigger, and the season is getting longer, fueled by hotter and drier weather from climate change. Even when fires are hundreds of miles away, wildfire smoke can still harm people's health and create economic costs through air pollution, said Casey Wichman, an associate professor in Georgia Tech's School of Economics.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) measures how clean or polluted the air is. A healthy AQI is between zero and 50, but when wildfire smoke blows in and settles over cities, the AQI can reach levels of 500 or more. Poor air quality changes where and how people spend their time and money, reduces productivity (even for those working indoors) and increases health care costs.
"Environmental regulations like the Clean Air Act dramatically improved our air quality over the past 40 years, but as wildfire season becomes the new normal, wildfire smoke is eroding those gains," Wichman said. According to recent research, wildfire smoke has erased about a quarter of the progress made over previous decades and more than half in many Western states. Air pollution can cost the economy billions of dollars each year, so it's important to factor it in when calculating the true costs of climate change, explained Wichman, who is an affiliate of Georgia Tech's Climate, Environment, and Resource (CLEAR) Economics Lab and teaches a course on the economics of climate change.
"On days with peak air pollution events, people tend to stay inside more, so they're not going out and spending money that supports the local economy," Wichman said. When the AQI is high, people might stay home instead of going shopping, dining out or spending time outdoors. Businesses that rely on foot traffic receive fewer customers, and outdoor events like festivals, races or sporting events might be canceled due to air quality concerns.
Breathing polluted air has physical effects that make it harder to focus and make decisions. There's evidence that people exposed to air pollution, even for a short time, are less productive, Wichman said. For example, when air pollution is worse, baseball umpires make more mistakes.
"So even if you're working from home to avoid air pollution or have a desk job, you're still exposed because there's not a perfect filter between your home and the outdoors, and that reduces the level of productivity you have at work," he explained. High AQI levels from wildfire smoke also reduce labor participation in outdoor workplaces such as agriculture and construction, where people may choose to take the day off work to reduce pollution exposure or companies cancel work due to safety concerns. "Although there's work being done on the social cost of wildfires, a lot of these impacts on productivity are harder to measure, and they're less likely to be included in the overall cost of wildfires," Wichman said.
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