• Question: Do wildfires affect the quality of oxygen that we breathe in? If so, does it affect us in any way?

    Asked by to Tom on 27 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Thomas Smith

      Thomas Smith answered on 27 Jun 2014:


      Hi Marianna,
      Wildfires normally only effect people who live close to the fires. The smoke from the wildfires contains very small dust particles that can get into your lungs.

      Sometimes if there are fires across large areas, like in the Amazon rainforest, or southeast Asia, whole continents can be affected by bad air quality. Unfortunately, it usually has bad effects on babies and young children, as well as elderly people. Children have smaller lungs, so they can be affected worse than adults.

      It isn’t really an issue in the UK because most of our wildfires are very small, but occasionally, large fires in Canada can send smoke in our direction across the Atlantic Ocean, this can sometimes affect people who have asthma.

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