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Wildfire smoke exposure worsens students’ learning outcomes

Nature Sustainability volume 5, pages 920–921 (2022)Cite this article

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Wildfires are increasing across the United States and are a growing contributor to air pollution. Combining high-resolution satellite- and ground-based data on smoke exposure with standardized test scores reveals that smoke exposure worsens school students’ learning outcomes. The costs of lowered performance are mostly borne by economically disadvantaged communities of colour.

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Fig. 1: Average number of smoke days and the impact of accumulated smoke.

References

  1. Burke, M. et al. The changing risk and burden of wildfire in the United States. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 118, e2011048118 (2021). This paper finds that wildfire smoke has contributed nearly 25% of the particulate matter across the USA in recent decades and up to 50% in the Western US states.

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This is a summary of: Wen, J. & Burke, M. Lower test scores from wildfire smoke exposure. Nat. Sustain. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00956-y (2022).

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Wildfire smoke exposure worsens students’ learning outcomes. Nat Sustain 5, 920–921 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00958-w

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