Canadian wildfires led to spike in asthma ER visits, especially in the Northeast

By MIKE STOBBE
AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Three studies show smoke from Canadian wildfires led to a spike in people with asthma visiting emergency rooms in the United States. A doctor in New Jersey says there was a flood of calls from asthmatics during the heaviest days of smoke that shrouded the Northeast with an orange haze in late spring. One study showed asthma-associated ER visits across the U.S. were 17% higher than normal during 19 days of wildfire smoke that occurred between late April and early August. That study collected data from about 4,000 U.S. hospitals.