Breathing in the yellow haze of wildfire smoke is not only bad for your lungs, it can harm your mind, too. In recent years research has begun to link air pollution with poor mental health, from depression and anxiety to psychotic breakdowns and, in kids, ADHD symptoms. And while most studies have focused on urban pollution, many of the same toxic chemicals in city air can also be found in wildfire smoke — and often in far larger quantities.
“Because it involves inefficient combustion of wood, leaves and soil, wildfire smoke contains just an enormous number of chemicals. In many ways, breathing wildfire smoke is similar to smoking unfiltered cigarettes,” says Paul Wennberg, atmospheric chemist at California Institute of Technology.
One thing you are likely to breathe in with both noxious urban air and wildfire smoke is nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a harmful gas that can also react with other compounds in the air to produce secondary pollutants, such as ozone. Then, there are the fine particles found in pollution and smoke: larger ones, called PM10, and finer ones, PM2.5. All of these compounds have been found to negatively affect mental health.
