What could be more terrifying than a wall of flame sweeping through the suburbs of Los Angeles? The stealthy cloud of pollution seeping into people’s lungs many miles from the conflagration, which will be causing harm long after the last ember burns out.
Burning palm trees and multimillion-dollar mansions turned into ash make an unforgettable symbol of the damage climate change is wreaking. An even greater toll, however, will be counted in lives cut short not by the violence of a wildfire, but by the slow poisoning unleashed by its flames.
Particulates permeate the air we breathe, whether in cities or the countryside. The ones known as PM10 are about one-tenth the width of a human hair and can penetrate deep into our lungs, where they cause cancer and heart disease. PM2.5 is four times smaller still and can make it into the bloodstream — and from there, almost every tissue in the human body.
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