‘A wake up call’: ER visits for asthma spiked during destructive wildfire season – CTV
May 05, 2025
Asthma-related emergency department (ED) visits spiked in Ontario following the heavy smoke that came with Canada’s most destructive wildfire season, according to new research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on Monday.
“The unprecedented wildfires of 2023 are a wake-up call that wildfires — a persistent feature of Canada’s landscape — are becoming more intense and prolonged in a changing climate, affecting millions of people,” writes Hong Chen, a scientist with Health Canada, ICES, and Public Health Ontario, with coauthors.
Thick smoke from severe wildfires blanketed Canada but also the United States in 2023, destroying forests and homes and worsening air quality.
Researchers focused on the impacts of smoke from two wildfires on residents of Ontario, analyzing ED visits from 30 public health units in the summer of 2023. The study was conducted over a period that began around eight weeks before the first wildfire and lasted four weeks after the second one.
