Credit: Pexels/Anton Ivanov

Last week, hazy air and a profound sense of deja-vu billowed over the Northeast and other parts of the country. Just as three years previously, smoke drifted from Canada’s wildfires, turning the sky a hazy orange and making it difficult to breathe. 

The scene outside was eerie; the burnt air and pervasive smell of smoke overtook the city as people shuffled from work and their daily activities in masks, trying their best to protect themselves. I had planned to go running that week, but experts advised people to stay inside to avoid inhaling fine particle matter and ozone, which could cause serious short and long-term health issues. In that same vein, friends canceled a “field day” they’d been planning for months because it was unsafe to be outside, and my dog Paloma was cooped up inside. 

Yes, I was disappointed by these outcomes, but the poor air quality is obviously bigger than a few missed workouts, social events, or a pet being forced to luxuriate on the couch. There are approximately 900 wildfires continuing to burn across Canada as of July 22, and as The Chicago Tribune reports, it could be as late as October or November before air quality in part of the Midwest returns to baseline. As long as the wildfires and other environmental events that affect air quality are happening, so is the damage — not just to lungs, but to our collective mental health. 

What the research says

Air pollution’s toll on the body, including precipitating and exacerbating asthma, heart disease, and lung damage, is well established. What’s less discussed is pollution’s connection to worsening mental health outcomes. Managing any sort of physical condition takes a clear toll on mental health in its own right. But research also suggests that the same inflammation that strains your heart and lungs may affect the brain, too. That may help explain why smoke-choked weeks make us sick, anxious, foggy, and low. 

A recent review found that the majority of studies on the subject reported higher rates of mental health symptoms following exposure to elevated air pollution. Long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been linked to increased risk of depression, anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Research increasingly shows that even short-term spikes, like a smoke event lasting a few days, can worsen anxiety symptoms.

Increases in depression and anxiety symptoms can be connected to fear about the air quality and its impact on health, especially if someone’s from a vulnerable group. Per The Associated Press, wildfire smoke kills tens of thousands of people each year, so it’s no wonder why people might develop health anxiety during these events. 

These increases are likely also connected to the ways in which poor air quality affects our ability to connect with others, especially during the summer season when affordable and outdoor-based activities are in full supply as compared to the winter where Daylight Savings Time zaps our energy and tricks us into thinking it’s time for us to be in bed by 4 p.m. This is no small thing, as practitioners agree that social connection isn’t a nice-to-have for good mental and physical health; it’s necessary for it, to the point that “social prescribing,” which involves spending time in community, is associated with fewer emergency room and primary care visits. 

Staying inside can’t be the only solution 

“We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are ​not properly maintaining their Forests … and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air,” wrote President Donald Trump on Truth Social last week. 

As convenient as it may be to blame another country, it’s harder to do so when just six months ago, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a new rule: when deciding how strict air pollution limits should be, it would no longer count the lives saved or medical costs avoided by cleaner air, only what those rules cost companies to follow, per the AP. 

This lack of accountability is part of a wider pattern. Just this week, a judge ordered the EPA to stop stalling on a separate, stronger soot standard it was legally required to implement, after the agency missed its own deadline and after nearly 20 environmental and public health groups and 10 states fought to make it happen. 

Blaming a neighboring country doesn’t change how many wildfires burn next season, and removing health costs from a formula doesn’t erase them. It just means the people with the least room to absorb them — disproportionately lower-income communities living closest to pollution sources who’ve long been carrying the heaviest exposure — quietly keep absorbing them anyway. 

Paloma is back to her regular walks. The sky near me cleared, eventually, and for now; for others it hasn’t, and it won’t for a while. But “eventually,” “for now,” and “stay inside” make for a hollow long-term plan when the fires keep burning and the smoke keeps closing in.  

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Gwen is a journalist-turned-therapist with a decade of experience in media. She recently earned her M.Ed. in Mental Health Counseling from Hunter College and sees clients at the ATTN Center in New York. Gwen also holds degrees from Cornell and Northwestern University and writes a mental health newsletter called Your Self-Help Bestie.