Commentary: What wildfires do to our bodies when the smoke settles

In fall 2020, I woke up in an apocalypse. It was 8 a.m., but the world outside was dark and blanketed by an angry red sky. With all the lights on in the house, we watched specks of smoke and debris float down outside from a nearby wildfire in Northern California. I will never forget driving down the freeway to the grocery store, watching a fire blaze through the hills beside me.

In Chicago and the Midwest, we pride ourselves on our cocoon from climate change’s most dangerous disasters. However, we still face the consequences of Canada’s wildfires to our air quality, and a recent report noted that some parts of Iowa now have up to a 92nd percentile risk of wildfires — on a par with the risk California and Colorado face.