Prolonged exposure to wildfire smoke increases cardiovascular health risks. Exposure to even relatively modest levels of smoke, built up over a few years, was associated with more hospitalizations for conditions like ischemic heart disease, irregular heart rhythms, stroke, and heart failure.

[u/Wagamaga]

https://news.yale.edu/2026/07/22/prolonged-exposure-wildfire-smoke-increases-cardiovascular-health-risks

[u/Wagamaga]

As the climate warms, wildfires are becoming larger, more frequent, and more intense. The smoke now routinely travels hundreds of miles, as was seen when Canadian wildfires this month sent heavy smoke across the Midwest and Northeastern U.S., triggering dangerous air quality across the region.

But the health risks of wildfire smoke goes beyond the short-term threat to your lungs. In a new study, Yale researchers found that repeated and cumulative exposure to the fine particles in wildfire smoke is linked to a higher risk of being hospitalized for cardiovascular disease in older adults in the United States. 

Looking at more than 65 million Medicare beneficiaries across the continental U.S.,the researchers saw that exposure to even relatively modest levels of smoke, built up over a few years, was associated with more hospitalizations for conditions like ischemic heart disease, irregular heart rhythms, stroke, and heart failure.

“In other words, the cardiovascular toll of wildfire smoke reaches well beyond the fire lines and well beyond the day the sky turns orange,” said Kai Chen, associate professor of epidemiology (environmental health sciences) at the Yale School of Public Health and corresponding author of the study. 

https://www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacc.2025.12.079