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Articles on Particulate matter

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Thick wildfire smoke blankets the landscape near Water Valley, Alta., in May 2023. Evidence linking wildfire smoke with adverse health effects has been accumulating for years. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Wildfire smoke is an increasing threat to Canadians’ health

The notion that wildfire smoke is ‘natural,’ and therefore less harmful than other types of air pollution, is not supported by the evidence. Wildfire smoke has been linked to adverse health effects.
A farmer works with his tractor in front of the Kusile Power Station located in eMalahleni. In Gauteng province residents can sometimes smell the pollution coming from this direction. Wikus de Wet/AFP via Getty Images

The air in South African Highveld cities smells foul in the winter: here’s why

Johannesburg occasionally smells like rotten eggs. The wind brings the smell from the east or the southeast, where most industries are located.
Wildfire smoke contains a mixture of toxic pollutants that can be harmful to both the lungs and the brain. Bloomberg Creative/ Bloomberg Creative Photos via Getty Images

Neurotoxins in the environment are damaging human brain health – and more frequent fires and floods may make the problem worse

Pollution from more frequent floods and wildfires – exacerbated by the warming climate – is threatening human health and poses particular risks to the brain.
Toxic dust hung in the air around ground zero for more than three months following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Anthony Correia/Getty Images

9/11 survivors’ exposure to toxic dust and the chronic health conditions that followed offer lessons that are still too often unheeded

Those directly exposed to toxic dust and trauma on and after 9/11 carry with them a generation of chronic health conditions, which are placing them at higher risk during the pandemic and as they age.

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