70K annual excess deaths possible from smoke

Axios -   Wildfire smoke could cause tens of thousands more deaths each year across the U.S. by midcentury without protective measures, a new study warns.

The grim findings are among the strongest evidence yet of the harmful effects of climate change, the study's authors say.

• They also indicate that health care systems — and health care coverage — will be strained as the climate continues to change.

Under the worst scenarios, wildfire smoke could cause more than 70,000 excess deaths annually by 2050.

• "The impacts are much larger than anything else that has been measured," Marshall Burke, an environmental economist at Stanford University who contributed to the study, told the New York Times.

The research team used 20 years' worth of death records, satellite and ground data and climate models to study the relationship between exposure to wildfire smoke and mortality.There are several ways to mitigate the health impacts of wildfire smoke.

• Better forest management could help reduce the severity of wildfires.
• Air filters and protective masks can help shield people from wildfire smoke.
• Cutting climate pollution can lower the risk of large, deadly fires.