Health
Inside the Poisonous Smoke Killing Wildfire Fighters at Young Ages
Across the country, wildfire fighters work for weeks at a time in poisonous smoke.
The government says they are protected.
We tested the air at one fire to find out why they are still dying.
Across the country, wildfire fighters work for weeks at a time in poisonous smoke.
The government says they are protected.
We tested the air at one fire to find out why they are still dying.
It’s July and the Green fire is tearing through Northern California. An elite federal firefighting crew called the La Grande Hotshots has been sent to help. The 24-person crew has been working for days on the front lines, where invisible toxins hide in the thick haze.
More than 1,000 firefighters are on the fire. Several crews, including the La Grande Hotshots, are trying to contain the flames by building a trench of bare earth that will stretch from a road to a river bank. They’re doing this at night, in hopes that the cooler air will tamp down the smoke.
The crew knows that they’re risking their health.
One longtime member died last year after being diagnosed at 40 with brain cancer. A former crew leader is being treated for both leukemia and lymphoma diagnosed in his 40s. Another colleague was recently told that he has the lungs of a lifelong chainsmoker.
Wildfire fighters nationwide are getting sick and dying at young ages, The New York Times has reported. The federal government acknowledges that the job is linked to lung disease, heart damage and more than a dozen kinds of cancer.
But the U.S. Forest Service, which employs thousands of firefighters, has for decades ignored recommendations from its own scientists to monitor the conditions at the fire line and limit shifts when the air becomes unsafe.
To find out how harmful the air gets on an average-size wildfire, Times reporters brought sensors to the Green fire this summer. We tracked levels of some of the most lethal particles in the air, called PM2.5, which are so tiny that they can enter the bloodstream and cause lasting damage.
Readings above 225.5 micrograms per cubic meter are considered hazardous. On the fire line, levels regularly exceeded 500.
The fire began on July 1 after a lightning storm passed over the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
By July 16, much of the area was shrouded in smoke.
Around 6 p.m., the La Grande Hotshots started their shift and set off toward the fire line.
Capt. Nick Schramm, a crew leader, assumed the air was reasonably safe. He has done this work for nearly two decades, and like most firefighters, he often has coughing fits after long shifts. But he believes that exposure to hazardous air is unavoidable.
“That’s just the harsh truth,” he said later.
As climate change makes fire seasons worse, several states have tried to shield outdoor workers from wildfire smoke, which can contain poisons like arsenic, benzene and lead. California now requires employers to monitor air quality during fires, and to provide breaks and masks when the air turns unhealthy.
But these rules don’t apply on the wildfires themselves, because state agencies and private companies successfully argued that those constraints would get in the way of fighting fires.
Until recently, federal firefighters weren’t even allowed to wear masks on the job. Masks are now provided, but they are still banned during the most arduous work, closest to the fire. The Forest Service says face coverings could cause heatstroke, though wildland firefighters in other countries regularly use masks without this problem.
As crews descended the ridge toward the fire line, the levels of toxic particles nearly doubled.
Firefighters say that during their shifts they worry more about immediate dangers — falling trees, burns, sharp tools — than about smoke exposure. As the La Grande crew hiked down the steep terrain, Lily Barnes, a squad leader, concentrated on keeping her footing.
Back home in the off-season, she sometimes wonders what the smoke is doing to her body, she said in an interview. “Maybe I’ll realize one day I shouldn’t have been doing this work.”
The handbook issued to Forest Service crews has 10 words of guidance for smoke exposure on the fire line: “If needed, rotate resources in and out of smoky areas.” The agency declined to comment for this story, but in the past has told The Times that while exposure cannot be completely eliminated, rotating crews helps limit risk.
In practice, according to interviews with hundreds of firefighters, workers feel as though they are sent into smoke and then forgotten. Over months of reporting, Times journalists never saw a boss pull a crew back because of exposure.
Even experienced supervisors can’t tell exactly how unhealthy the air is just by looking.
Chuy Elguezabal, the La Grande superintendent, says he pulls his crews out of smoke when it becomes impossible for them to work — when they cannot see or breathe, or they are overcome by headaches and coughing fits.
On the Green fire, he said, the smoke seemed like more of an inconvenience, like the 105-degree daytime heat or the poison oak that had given many of the firefighters weeping sores.
Since the 1990s, Forest Service researchers have suggested giving crews wearable air sensors, but the agency hasn’t done it. Other dangerous workplaces, like coal mines, have long been required to monitor airborne hazards.
On the Green fire, The Times used a device that weighs as much as a deck of cards and costs about $200.
Last year, firefighters wore the same devices during a small federal research project to measure their exposure. For hours, those readings stayed at 1,000 — as high as the monitors go — according to Zach Kiehl, a consultant who worked on the project.
Mr. Kiehl said that ideally, crews would be issued monitors to know when to put on masks or pull back from a smoky area. “You can pay now and prevent future cases, or pay out later when a person is losing a husband or a father,” he said.
The firefighters believe that the decision to work at night has paid off: The smoke occasionally got thick, but didn’t seem bad compared with other fires they have worked. They think the exposure was fleeting.
In fact, the monitors show, the air was never safe.
Methodology
To measure particulate concentrations at the Green fire, The Times followed U.S. Forest Service crews and carried two Atmotube PRO sensors. These portable, inexpensive monitors are the same as those the Forest Service has tested in the field.
We consulted with Dr. Aishah Shittu, an environmental health scientist, and Dr. Jim McQuaid, an atmospheric scientist, both from the University of Leeds. They are co-authors of a study showing that Atmotube Pro sensors demonstrated good performance for measuring fine particulate matter concentrations despite being a fraction of the size of reference-grade models. We also developed our approach in consultation with experts from the Interior Department and the Forest Service.
On the Green fire, the sensors recorded minute-by-minute averages of airborne particles that are 2.5 micrometers in diameter or smaller. The Times then matched these readings with timestamps and locations from a satellite-enabled GPS watch.
Generally, the harm associated with PM2.5 levels is calculated based on a 24-hour average. Here, for near-real-time monitoring on the fire line, we followed the guidance of Drs. Shittu and McQuaid by first averaging the readings from the two sensors and then calculating a 15-minute rolling average.
Using those figures, we categorized the health risks of PM2.5 exposure according to standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. We used standards meant for the public because there are no federal occupational standards for wildfire smoke exposure.
After averaging, our data had a correlation coefficient of 0.98 and a mean coefficient of variation between the two sensors of 7.5 percent. The E.P.A. recommends that PM2.5 air measurements have a correlation coefficient of at least 0.7 and a mean coefficient of variation less than 30 percent. Our correlation and variance measures gave us confidence that the sensors were largely in agreement.
The 3-D base map in this article uses Google’s Photorealistic 3D Tiles, which draw from the following sources to create the tiles: Google; Airbus; Landsat / Copernicus; Data SIO, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO; IBCAO.
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This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
A new study suggests that exercise can treat depression just as effectively as therapy and antidepressants.
A Cochrane review looked at 73 randomized controlled trials involving nearly 5,000 adults with a depression diagnosis. The studies compared exercise with either other active treatments — such as therapy or medication — or with “inactive interventions,” like being placed on a wait list or in a control group.
The London-based team discovered that exercise may be “moderately effective” compared to no therapy in reducing depression symptoms, according to a press release.
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“There is probably little to no difference in depressive symptoms between people undertaking exercise and those receiving psychological therapy,” the authors noted in a study discussion on Cochrane’s website, and “there may be little to no difference in depressive symptoms between people doing exercise and those taking antidepressants.”
The analysis discovered that exercise may be “moderately effective” compared to no therapy in reducing depression symptoms. (iStock)
The review found that light- to moderate-intensity exercise was more beneficial for easing depression symptoms than vigorous exercise.
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No single type of physical activity stood out as the best, but mixed programs that included resistance training appeared to be “more effective” than just aerobic exercise.
Some forms of exercise, like yoga and stretching, were not included in the analysis, but are areas to be further researched, the review noted.
Mixed exercise programs and resistance training appeared to be “more effective” in easing depression symptoms than just aerobic exercise. (iStock)
Professor Andrew Clegg, lead author of the review, wrote in a statement that exercise “appears to be a safe and accessible option for helping to manage symptoms of depression.”
“This suggests that exercise works well for some people, but not for everyone, and finding approaches that individuals are willing and able to maintain is important,” he said.
Study limitations and risks
The researchers noted that there was a high risk of bias in some of the studies included in the review, and noted that the long-term effects of exercise on depression symptoms remain uncertain.
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Clegg noted that “larger, high-quality studies” are needed to determine which types of exercise work best and whether the benefits last over time.
The comparison between exercise and other treatments and how they benefit people’s quality of life were also “inconsistent and uncertain.”
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“Adverse events from exercise were not common,” the researchers mentioned. “The small number of participants who experienced them usually reported muscle and joint problems or worsening of depression.”
About 21 million U.S. adults had at least one major depressive episode in a recent year — equivalent to roughly 8.3% of all U.S. adults, according to the National Institutes of Health. (iStock)
“Future research should focus on improving the quality of the studies, working out which characteristics of exercise are effective for different people, and ensuring different types of people are included in the studies so that health equity issues can be considered,” they went on.
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About 21 million U.S. adults had at least one major depressive episode in a recent year — equivalent to roughly 8.3% of all U.S. adults, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Depression symptoms include feelings of sadness, hopelessness, anxiety, guilt or irritability, as well as loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities. Fatigue, poor concentration, sleep disturbances, appetite changes and social withdrawal are also red flags, in addition to thoughts about dying or suicidal ideations.
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The condition is most often treated by antidepressant medications and psychological therapies, such as talk therapy. Anyone who needs help should consult their doctor.
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With an aggressive new strain spreading across the country, this year’s flu season has been marked by record-high hospitalizations and reportedly intense symptoms.
As people look for ways to contain the spread, new research has found that a few simple factors can greatly reduce transmission.
Researchers from the University of Maryland Schools of Public Health and Engineering in College Park and the School of Medicine in Baltimore studied influenza spread by placing flu-positive college students in a hotel room with healthy middle-aged adult volunteers.
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The study, published in the journal PLOS Pathogens, is reportedly the first clinical trial investigating how the flu spreads from naturally infected people to uninfected people, according to a press release.
The participants, including 11 healthy volunteers, lived on a quarantined floor of a Baltimore-area hotel for two weeks. During that time, they simulated interactions, including having conversations, doing physical activities like yoga, and passing around objects like pens and tablets from infected people to the rest of the group.
New research has experts questioning how the flu spreads through airborne transmission. (iStock)
Researchers monitored the participant’s symptoms, performed daily nasal swabs, and collected saliva and blood samples to test for antibodies, the release stated.
The study also measured the “viral exposure” in the volunteers’ breathing air and ambient air in the activity room. The exhaled breath of the participants was measured by a machine called the Gesundheit II, invented by researcher Dr. Donald Milton and colleagues at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
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At the end of the experiment, none of the healthy individuals had become infected with the flu due to a variety of factors. This included a lack of coughing, as the infected students were holding “a lot of virus in their noses” and only small amounts were “expelled into the air,” the researchers noted.
Researchers said proper ventilation was a major factor in halting flu spread in this study. (iStock)
“Our data suggests key things that increase the likelihood of flu transmission — coughing is a major one,” Dr. Jianyu Lai, post-doctoral research scientist and the study’s lead data analyst and report writer, shared in a statement.
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The other factor was ventilation and air movement, as the air in the study room was “continually mixed rapidly by a heater and dehumidifier, and so the small amounts of virus in the air were diluted,” Lai pointed out.
The researcher added that middle-aged adults are “usually less susceptible” to influenza than younger adults.
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Most researchers assume that airborne transmission is a major factor of disease spread, according to Dr. Donald Milton, professor at SPH’s Department of Global, Environmental and Occupational Health and a global infectious disease aerobiology expert.
“At this time of year, it seems like everyone is catching the flu virus, and yet our study showed no transmission,” he said in the same press release. “What does this say about how flu spreads and how to stop outbreaks?”
There have been 81,000 flu-related hospitalizations and more than 3,000 deaths in the U.S. this year so far, data shows. (iStock)
Milton, who was reportedly among the first experts to identify how to stop the spread of COVID-19, noted that findings from these types of trials are essential to updating international infection-control guidelines.
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“Being up close, face-to-face with other people indoors where the air isn’t moving much, seems to be the most risky thing — and it’s something we all tend to do a lot,” he said.
“At this time of year, it seems like everyone is catching the flu virus, and yet our study showed no transmission.”
“Our results suggest that portable air purifiers that stir up the air, as well as clean it, could be a big help,” Milton suggested. “But if you are really close and someone is coughing, the best way to stay safe is to wear a mask, especially the N95.”
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Approximately 11 million flu illnesses and about 5,000 deaths have occurred so far in the 2025-2026 influenza season, according to CDC data. A large share of the current flu cases are caused by the new influenza A subclade K variant.
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