Each year, globally, between 260,000 and 600,000 people die from smoke from wildfires, and Canadian fires have been linked to spikes in hospitalizations as far away as the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Drinking water in Colorado was damaged for years by the fallout from a single wildfire in 2002. In 2014, Canada’s Northwest Territories were blanketed with wildfire smoke, producing a 42 percent spike in hospital visits for respiratory ailments and what one study called a “profound” negative effect on individual well-being. “One of the strongest emotions that people felt was isolation,”
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