In recent days, government officials, scientists and public health experts have warned millions of Americans to stay indoors in order to protect themselves from extraordinary levels of wildfire smoke drifting down from Canada. Across the Northeast, countless people have reported seeing orange haze and experiencing acute physical discomfort from inhaling particulate matter. Stanford researchers have already rated the intensity of the pollution one of the worst wildfire pollution events in U.S. history.
But if you turn on Fox News, an “expert” will tell you that it’s all in your head. There is no crisis. And it’s definitely not related to climate change.
On Wednesday, Fox News host Laura Ingraham introduced Steve Milloy as a “senior legal fellow at the Energy and Environment Legal Institute and Trump-era transition team member” on her show, after which he proceeded to barrage viewers with the misinformation that the smoke from the wildfires isn’t harmful. He disseminated that nonsense with the nonchalance and shamelessness befitting a former professional Big Oil and Big Tobacco propagandist. I guess that’s the kind of person you have to reach out to as an expert when you’re in the business of climate denialism.
According to Milloy, there is no “health risk” associated with wildfire smoke. Americans, he argued, are simply succumbing to “anxiety.” That is false. As anyone who has ever inhaled smoke can intuit, it’s not something that’s meant to be in one’s lungs. And this is not a source of debate or controversy among scientists and public health experts. Per NBC News:
In the short term, wildfire smoke can cause irritation to the eyes, nose, throat and lungs, as well as an increased risk of respiratory infection. Studies have also found that short-term exposure to small particulate matter increases the risk of a range of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Longer term, exposure to air pollution is associated with several chronic health conditions…
Milloy also tried to deceive audiences by pointing out that India and China have “this kind of” poor air quality all the time, and that there is “no public health emergency” in those places. That is also false.
Fox guest: There's just no health risk…We have this kind of air in India and China all the time, no public health emergency… this doesn't kill anybody, this doesn't make anybody cough, this is not a health event… particulate matter is just very fine soot, they're innocuous. pic.twitter.com/DB0hDmqRwC
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) June 8, 2023
As The New York Times’ David Wallace-Wells recently pointed out, “For a moment, New York’s air quality was worse than it was in Delhi, the infamous pollution capital where average life spans are reduced more than nine years by particulates in the air.”








