DENVER (KDVR) — Several wildfires in southern California are sending plumes of smoke toward Colorado.
The smoke will create harsh air quality conditions for Coloradans, which may affect their physical health. According to a study conducted at the University of Colorado Boulder, however, physical health may not be the only thing affected by the influx of smoke.
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The study concluded that exposure to wildfire smoke increases the risk of mental illness in youth. In fact each day they are exposed to the smoke, they are slightly increasing the risk of mental illness.
“We found that a greater number of days with fine particulate air pollution levels above EPA standards was associated with increased symptoms of mental illness, both during the year of exposure and up to one year later,” said Harry Smolker, a research associate with CU’s Institute of Cognitive Science.
Some 10,000 pre-teens participated in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. The addresses of the participants were gathered and used to determine the air quality levels in their area. They used the data to gauge how many days the pre-teens were exposed to fine particulate matter levels above 35 micrograms per cubic meter. That is the level that the Environmental Protection Agency has deemed unsafe.