The new report says

Canada’s worst wildfire season tarnished the country on record Aeroity And pollution had a similar effect Parts of the United StatesAccording to a new report.

Researchers at the University of Chicago released their annual on Thursday Air quality life indexA status on air pollution and how it affects life expectancy. AQLI’s report states that particle pollution “, comparing the effects of smoking, remained the greatest external threat to human life expectancy.

Researchers at the University’s Energy Policy Institute analyzed the data of pollution collected in 2023 and compared it to previous years.

Michael Greenstone, a professor at the University of Chicago, who created AQLI, told CBS News that his team focused on airbourne particulate matter – small particles that are capable of attacking the body more easily and coarse.

Greenstone stated that data is taken from satellite reading that is refreshed each year and can take time in the process, which is why the latest figures are behind a few years.

While global pollution increased slightly between 2022 and 2023, the authors of the report found that the update level is about five times higher. Recommended limit To protect public safety by the World Health Organization. Local changes in air quality vary from one country to another. The differences were particularly in the US and Canada, where airborne particle concentrations were Grow more than elsewhere,

The authors wrote in their report, “Evidence of climate change, wildfire smoke and increasing particulate pollution in the last two decades is increasing evidence.”

Extreme wildfire, especially wildfire, has become larger, more common and more intense since the beginning of this century, According to NASA,

Particle concentrations in Canada were not seen since 1998, which was according to AQLI. In the US, Wildfire abandoned pollution at the levels not viewed since 2011 – 20% increase from the levels recorded in 2022. Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Mississippi clearly influenced, with the pockets of those states the most polluted nationwide instead of 20 counties in California.

Of the 3,137 American counties, the number of pollution levels up National US standard According to the report, up to 308 in 2023, above 12 in 2022. Forty -five counties were in Ohio, 41 were in Wisconsin, 31 were in Pennsylvania, 26 were in Indiana and 19 were in Illinois, the remaining 143 were spread over the rest of the country.

In Canada, researchers said that in 2023 50% of residents breathed the air, with their quantity of particles. National air quality standardThis cleaner was a sharp change in the progress of the country in the exploration of air, resulting in a particulate level below the national standard in the previous years, the authors of the report said, “Given that the particle levels in the most polluted areas of Canada were equal to Bolivia and Honduras, are known to challenge two countries that address air quality and pollution.”

According to the report, the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and North -Western regions experienced the country’s worst pollution. Reflection of some of its places Disastrous forest fire He collectively Burned more than 71,000 acres of land From east to west coast. Smoke from those blessings An atmosphere on Canada and the US allowed, and sometimes, people with some conditions, while giving health poses, are threatened.

Forest fire Canada is scorching this summer Canadians and Americans have again given rise to severe air quality concerns.

Greenstone told CBS News, “It is right to think of this air pollution with a wildfire, as the ghost of fossil fuel is in the past.”

He said that America has In the last half century By entering the air, “heavy progress” was made towards blocking particles produced through the burning of fossil fuels like oil and gas. AQLI credited the implementation clean Air Act To reduce more than 60% of particle concentrations since 1970, which states that it has added 1.4 years to the life expectancy of American inhabitants.

Greenstone stated that devices used to block particles do not prevent carbon dioxide to infiltrate the environment, increase temperature and increase both wildfires from increasing. When the trees burn in the fire, more particles are produced and released again.

Greenstone said, “The point we are trying to create is that CO2 when we use fossil fuels, historically and today, both remains in the atmosphere for centuries, and it increases the temperature, and it will continue for centuries,” Greenstone said. “What we are seeing is an important consequence of that, which is this, it is going to increase the incidence of the moving forest fire. And those wildfires are motivating us to breathe in the air that are motivating us to live less and sick life.”