The Brief

Griffith Park has always been more than, well, just a park. It’s been compared to New York’s Central Park and Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, but this urban wilderness is in a league of its own.

Its past lives — aside from the over 4,200 acres of natural chaparral and parkland landscape — include an aerodrome, an ostrich farm, public housing, multiple civil rights actions, and of course, the stomping ground for P-22.

If you’ve resolved to explore more in 2024, Los Angeles’ great backyard is worth your time. It’s got great hiking trails, compelling history, and stories that overlap with plenty of cool things (and some not so cool) about this city. Here’s your guide to everything Griffith Park.

A brief early history (and curse)

A view of the Hollywoodland sign (not yet Hollywood!) from Mount Hollywood taken in 1937.

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Herman Schultheis

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Herman J Schultheis Collection, Los Angeles Photographers Collection/Los Angeles Public Library

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Before you get up close and personal with nature, it’s important to appreciate how this vast park came into L.A.’s care.

The San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, also known as the Gabrieleno Tongva people, have been the Indigenous caretakers of the L.A. basin long before it was ever called that.

Archaeologists found artifacts in Griffith Park indicating the mouth of Fern Dell Canyon was once a tribal village, with council meeting grounds and a trading post area. The area has been a L.A. historic-cultural monument since 1973, with a plaque making it under the Fern Dell sign.

A rare look at Bee Rock during a snowy time in 1949.

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Van Yuneo

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Security Pacific National Bank Collection/Los Angeles Public Library

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Things changed under Spanish rule. The area we know as Griffith Park became part of Rancho Los Feliz (yep that Los Feliz), a Spanish land grant owned by José Vicente Feliz. He was a corporal for the Crown who escorted the 11 families who settled L.A. in 1781, so he was a very big deal here.

There’s a bit of lore here too. In 1863, a member of the Feliz family who had rights to the land died of smallpox. Even though his live-in sister and niece were still alive, he gave most of the Rancho to the family’s lawyer, Don Antonio Coronel, in his will.

As lore would have it, Coronel and his lawyer, Don Innocante, “were believed to have dishonestly obtained the dying Feliz’s signature on the will.” In retaliation, his niece Doña Petranilla is said to have gone up to Bee Rock — a peak in the park — to call upon the gods.

“She cursed the land,” said Mike Eberts, a professor and Griffith Park historian. “You know, 'the cattle shall not fatten. There will be pestilence and plague' and so on and so forth. And for the next 50 to 100 years, whenever anything bad would happen in Griffith Park, it’d kind of get blamed on the curse.”

Eberts, who wrote a book on Griffith Park, doesn’t put much stock into the curse and believes a newspaper columnist is responsible for drumming it up. (For a bit of fun, LAist asked the people interviewed for this story if they believed in the curse. Everyone said no, but acknowledged that bad things have happened there.)

In later years, the parkland changed hands a couple more times before falling under the control of a particularly important person in 1882: Griffith J. Griffith.

Griffith J. Griffith’s big role

Griffith J. Griffith, the donor of Griffith Park to Los Angeles, taken in 1910.

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Security Pacific National Bank Collection/Los Angeles Public Library

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As you might’ve guessed, Griffith Park is named after this former owner. Griffith emigrated to the United States in 1865 from South Wales. He was a man with a fortune from California’s gold mines, a fake colonel title and a “complicated personality,” Eberts said. (Fun fact: His business card said G. J. Griffith, Capitalist.)

He enjoyed nature, put an ostrich farm on the grounds and set up an aerodrome. According to Eberts, before Griffith eventually donated the land, someone made a pact with Griffith that if there were any gold doubloons found under today’s park center, they’d “split the booty.” Griffith was never short of dreams.

“Among his insights, Griffith was looking out over Los Angeles in the 1890s, which was, you know, a little bit the backside of nowhere, but growing,” Eberts said. “And Griffith really thought that Los Angeles was going to become a great city.”

He imagined the city growing around a big park, which seemed a bit lofty at the time because Griffith Park in those days wasn’t actually in the city limits. In fact, for the first few years after Griffith and his wife donated the park, it was outside L.A. boundaries.

"Then, with the annexation of Hollywood in 1910, there was a move to make the park accessible from Hollywood," Eberts said. “That led to the development of not just roads, but Fern Dell itself.”

Fern Dell (also spelled Ferndell) is a half-mile trail that is often described as a hidden gem or an enchanting, shaded path that takes you up to the park from Los Feliz Boulevard, winding through a canyon with the same namesake. (That’s also where the Gabrieleno Tongva village was located.)

A vintage postcard shows Fern Dell, so named because it is covered with ferns and other tropical growth.

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Security Pacific National Bank Collection/Los Angeles Public Library

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When Griffith and his wife donated the park to the city in 1896, it was a 5-square mile Christmas gift to Angelenos, given with the intent of it remaining a free park. In later years, Griffith shockingly shot his wife (she lived), which tarnished his reputation with city leaders.

But their donation still impacts L.A., because not only is there a large swath where nature can run free by our concrete home, it’s free for Angelenos to access too.

“It’s serving what the Colonel [Griffith] wanted,” said Marian Dodge, a past president of Friends of Griffith Park and chair of its history committee. “He wanted it to be a relief valve and it really does that.”

A magnet for significant events

Griffith Park has been like the quiet background actor in quite a few big movements in L.A. Here’s a brief look at some of those.

A public housing stint

There are quite a few buildings in Griffith Park, but did you know that a community lived in the park?

At the end of World War II, thousands of people returned to L.A. to build civilian lives. But that influx, combined with an already-growing population of war industry workers, created a severe housing shortage. For military folks, many came here unable to find housing to rent.

In 1946, a temporary response was set up in Griffith Park in just a matter of months: a major city-run public housing project. Rodger Young Village consisted of 750 quonset huts — temporary buildings made of steel — which were intended to house 1,500 families or about 6,000 residents (this took over where that aerodrome used to be).

Children on a slipper slide at Rodger Young Village on Feb. 4, 1952.

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Leonard Nadel

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Housing Authority Collection/Los Angeles Public Library

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A row of quonset huts at Rodger Young Village on July 19, 1950.

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Leonard Nadel

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Housing Authority Collection/Los Angeles Public Library

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“[Rodger Young Village] was not just public housing, but the first real integrated public housing in Los Angeles,” said Sarah Lann, the education director for the Los Angeles Conservancy.

Residents were primarily families of color who were discriminated against in the private housing market, making Rodger Young Village a viable home on many levels. But after public housing lost favor and the housing crisis eased, the village was razed in 1954.

There aren’t any remnants at its spot on the northeast corner of Griffith Park, even though the place had everything you’d expect from a town, like a malt shop to a dental office. The land now holds L.A. Zoo and Autry Museum parking lots. Lann says Rodger Young Village reminds her that if you want to understand L.A., “you poke Griffith Park and some amazing new aspect of history rears its head.”

Dreaming up Disneyland

Another highlight about Griffith Park comes from Walt Disney himself.

As the story goes, Disney would sit on a bench by the merry-go-round as his daughters rode. That lull, observing his kids have fun, gave him an idea: To create a theme park where children and adults could have fun. And boy, that idea took off. Disney Adults are thriving these days.

If you go to Disneyland, look along Main St. USA for a display with a Griffith Park bench and restored merry-go-round horses.

Dean Musgrove

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Herald Examiner Collection/Los Angeles Public Library

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Civil rights moments

That merry-go-round has seen some things. In 1961, it was the site of a protest with people who were angry over the operator’s treatment of Black teens. The kids reportedly jumped on and off the ride without paying, calling themselves “Freedom Riders” and aligning with the Civil Rights protests then happening.

Reportedly, the 75 police officers who were called to shut down the protest used racial slurs — a contentious example of how law enforcement treated Black communities in the ‘60s.

Seven years later, the merry-go-round was the site of a “gay day” in the park. At least three gay-ins were held in Griffith Park, which was a popular cruising spot for men back then, and those in attendance came to hear activists talk about gay civil rights.

Things to do at Griffith Park

Now, onto enjoying nature at the park.

We’ll spare you the usuals — of course Griffith Observatory is a great time. There is a lot to do and see here, ranging from a Bette Davis picnic area to the Travel Town Museum. But there are a few spots that could be new to you.

You could check out Amir’s Garden, which was created after a brush fire swept through the area in 1971. It’s named after Amir Dialameh, a wine merchant who asked the city if he could repair part of the burnt land. Before passing in 2003, he planted a garden to make a scenic rest spot for hikers with more than 60 varieties of trees.

There’s also a Firefighter’s Memorial that commemorates those who died in the 1933 brush fire that took over Mineral Wells Canyon.

Griffith Park has its own official list of attractions. The L.A. Conservancy also has a list of 30 different sites to check out. Out of those, here are a few options we’d recommend:

• The Old Zoo: 4801 Griffith Park Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90027
• Bee Rock: No set address, but directions can be found here.
• Feliz Adobe: 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles 90027
• Fern Dell waterfall and bridge: 2333 Fern Dell Drive, Los Angeles 90027
• Ellen Reid SOUNDWALK: No set address. SOUNDWALK is a GPS-enabled, app-based experience where the path you walk dictates what music you hear.

Getting around the park

Want to navigate the park without getting turned around? Keep this Griffith Park map handy, traveler.

A map of Griffith Park.

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Courtesy City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks

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LAParks.org

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You can find Metro, biking and parking information here. Walking directions are available there too.

For activities in the park, such as camp and bike rental locations, check that out here. Griffith Park has maps of trails, current information on trail closures and special restrictions at the Ranger Station.

The park is open from 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Nearby eats to try nearby

And if you’re hungry after a long hike, we got you covered.

Griffith Park Clubhouse

• What: A clubhouse that’s located around the Wilson and Harding golf courses. Anyone can eat at the restaurant, which offers American-style breakfast and lunch favorites, like omelets and sandwiches.
• Where: 5500 Griffith Park Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90027
• When: Daily, 7 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Franklin's Cafe and Market

• What: A cafe to pick up snacks and maps, or sit down and get a kimchi bowl or BLT. The cafe also serves wines and crafted beer. (This spot is cash-free.)
• Where: 2650 North Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
• When: Daily, 7 a.m. - 6 p.m.

The Trails

• What: A self-described “rustic” walk-up cafe that specializes in baked goods, coffees and teas. You can pick up quick breakfast and lunch foods to eat outside.
• Where: 2333 Fern Dell Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90027
• When: Open Thursday to Monday, 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Scout’s Honor BBQ

• What: Near the topside of the park, this place is where you can get a more meaty meal. From ribs to burgers, you can get all the barbeque trimmings here.
• Where 1223 West Riverside Drive, Burbank, CA 91506
• When: Daily, 3 p.m. - 8 p.m.

Members of a University of Southern California program are developing an AI program meant to help law enforcement agencies improve their interactions with the communities they serve.

The Everyday Respect Project partnered with the Los Angeles Police Department to analyze body camera footage of 1,000 random traffic stops. Now, they are using what they have found to train an AI model to look through countless hours of videos for critical elements of good policing — respect and de-escalation.

Benjamin Graham is an associate professor of political science at USC and helps to manage the project, which is being conducted by a team of professors, students and members of the community.

 ”LAPD conducts, give or take, a thousand stops a day,” Graham told LAist. He said those stops lead to thousands upon thousands of hours of body camera footage.

In most cases, Graham said, the body camera videos are uploaded to the cloud and never seen. He said only an automated program could sort through this rich source of data, analyze it and reveal the stories it holds.

With AI able to look through this data, Graham said police and sheriffs departments across the country could identify officers who are best able to communicate respectfully during traffic stops to be given promotions or training positions. They also could find the best techniques for officers to bring down the temperature in high-stress situations.

Georgetown University, the University of California, Riverside, and the University of Texas at Austin also are working with USC on the project.

What they’ve found so far

Graham told LAist researchers spoke with a wide range of community stakeholders, including community organizations that are critical of law enforcement and working police officers, to understand different perspectives of what separates a good traffic stop from a bad one.

They heard from thousands of Angelenos through surveys and interviews, reviewed LAPD training materials and rode along with officers on the streets. Graham said they focused on those diverse community perspectives throughout the project.

“ We have former law enforcement officers who are annotating this data,” he told LAist. “We have individuals who have been arrested before, and we have a lot of Angelenos from ... a range of ages, races, genders, professional backgrounds.”

Graham presented some of the Everyday Respect Project’s findings to the L.A. Board of Police Commissioners on Dec. 16.

He said researchers involved in the project analyzed 500 traffic stops in which LAPD officers conducted searches of the drivers they pulled over and another 500 stops in which there were no searches.

They found in cases when no search was conducted, some drivers were treated differently by officers based on their perceived race and wealth.

Researchers found that Black drivers were treated with more respect than Hispanic drivers. White drivers were pulled over least often, and the researchers did not find a significant difference between how white and non-white drivers were treated.

Of drivers who were stopped by police but weren’t searched, the researchers found those who were perceived as more wealthy also were treated with more respect by officers.

They did not find significant differences in how drivers were treated due to perceived race or wealth in stops in which searches were conducted.

Across all stops, the researchers found the more respect they perceived an officer showing to a driver they pulled over, the more legitimate the researchers would tend to rate the stop overall.

The LAPD has not responded to LAist’s request to comment on these findings.

Training AI to tell good traffic stops from bad

After analyzing and manually taking detailed notes on the first 1,000 traffic stops, Graham said the researchers are using what they’ve found to build an AI tool that can do the same thing — but is able to cover vastly more data and is accessible free of charge for any law enforcement agency.

To do this, Graham said team members use their notes as training data for the AI model.

By having humans label a number of things that happened or didn’t happen in videos of traffic stops, Graham told LAist, the AI model they are developing can learn to predict what humans will say about other videos.

“You're trying to train a model to do the same job that a human being does when it watches the video,” he said.

These notes include things like whether a search happened and at what time, whether officers explained the reason for the stop, if the driver complied with requests from the officer and any efforts by officers to de-escalate tense situations.

Graham said other companies have been working on AI tools to sell to departments, as well, but that the Everyday Respect Project is unique in its effort to build community perspectives into the program that will be fully open-source and open-science.

That means anyone can see exactly how the program works and the research behind it.

What could be coming next?

Graham said the Everyday Respect Project will be working through the winter and spring to improve the AI model and use it to analyze more LAPD bodycam videos. Then they will present their new findings to the police commissioners and release their AI model to the public.

It still is uncertain whether LAPD will use the Everyday Respect Project’s AI program once it is completed, but Captain Shannon White of LAPD’s Strategic Planning and Policies Division told the police commission Dec. 16 that the department looks forward to using the group’s research to spark “actionable change within the department.”

The LAPD has not responded to LAist’s questions about whether or how it will use the AI program once it is made available.

Graham told LAist other departments have shown interest in continuing to work with the Everyday Respect Project and the program in the future.

He said they may soon be working with the Rochester Police Department in New York on a trial to find the most effective de-escalation techniques for officers.

“ That's an incredible piece of learning that we can bring to improve policing, to improve officer safety, community safety, the whole nine yards,” Graham told LAist.

As of January, California is the first state in the country to partner with a nonprofit to develop, produce and sell its own insulin as a solution to the widespread unaffordability of the life-saving hormone that helps the body process or store blood sugar from food.

The nonprofit Civica will develop a CalRx Insulin Glargine pen – referred to as “biosimilar insulin,” meaning it references a U.S. Food & Drug Administration-approved product and has no “clinically meaningful differences from their reference product in terms of safety, purity, and potency.”

This CalRx pen can be substituted for Lantus and other branded insulin glargine, according to a spokesperson from the state’s Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI).

“California didn’t wait for the pharmaceutical industry to do the right thing — we took matters into our own hands,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in an October news release about the CalRx insulin. “No Californian should ever have to ration insulin or go into debt to stay alive — and I won’t stop until health care costs are crushed for everyone.”

CalRx aims to be another competitor in the field by introducing a lower-cost alternative — and possibly put “pressure on other manufacturers to lower their prices as well.”

According to the state and Civica, the suggested retail price is:

• No more than $30 for a 10mL vial of insulin
• No more than $55 for a 5-pack of 3 mL pens

According to the HCAI spokesperson in an email to KQED, the “out-of-pocket cost may be lower, depending on insurance coverage.”

Advocates for people with diabetes see the production as a win.

“We look forward to the rollout of CalRx® insulin in January,” said Christine Fallabel, director of state government affairs at the American Diabetes Association, in an email to KQED. “Any meaningful step to improve insulin affordability and provide additional options is a win for people with diabetes.”

Fallabel also pointed to the recent passage of Senate Bill 40 — which prohibits high copayments for a month’s supply of insulin — as another state decision that helps with accessibility.

The initiative could provide major financial relief for nearly 3.5 million Californians who have been diagnosed with diabetes, a majority of whom have Type II diabetes – where the body cannot use insulin correctly. Type 1 is when the body produces little to no insulin.

Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes can impact energy levels and organ functions. Insulin shots – or, in some cases, diabetes pills – help with major body functions. The National Diabetes Statistics Report found that 38.4 million people have diabetes – almost 12% of the country’s population.

Read on to learn more about changes to the price of insulin in California, how prescriptions will work and where to find more resources.

What is the predicted price of CalRx Insulin?

Difficulty accessing affordable insulin — specifically buying it — in America is a well-documented and widespread issue due to a market dominated by three major companies.

Insulin is seven to 10 times more expensive in the United States compared to other countries, despite being affordable to produce, according to a 2023 article by the Yale School of Medicine. In fact, it explains that “the same vial of insulin that cost $21 in the U.S. in 1996 now costs upward of $250.”

What should I do if I am paying more than $55?

According to the HCAI spokesperson, “CalRx and Civica cannot mandate the final price to the consumer as this would conflict with antitrust and competition law.”

But the spokesperson stated in the email that Civica is planning to include a QR code on the side of the boxes, so consumers can report if they have paid more than $55 for the product.

“At which point Civica would contact the pharmacy for remediation,” the spokesperson said.

Where can I get CalRx insulin? Do I need a prescription?

You do not need to apply to access the new insulin, and there are no eligibility requirements. You do not need insurance.

“Broad wholesale distribution will allow any California pharmacy to order CalRx insulin glargine,” the state explained in the email. Mail-order pharmacy outreach is still ongoing.

People interested in the CalRx insulin can “ask their pharmacist or doctor if they can switch their prescription to CalRx insulin glargine,” continued the HCAI spokesperson. Since the CalRx insulin is interchangeable with other brand names, you would not need a new doctor’s prescription.

“Health plans will be responsible for communicating about CalRx insulin glargine with their provider and patient networks,” said HCAI.

Can people in other states access it?

According to the HCAI spokesperson, “Yes, Civica Rx’s glargine insulin will be available in other states under Civica Rx’s label.”

Where can I learn more information?

• CalRx website
• CalRx fact sheet
• American Diabetes Association’s Center for Information
• Insulin Basics for Diabetes
• Civica Insulin
• T1International

KQED’s April Dembosky contributed to this report.

The Department of Homeland Security is pausing the immigration applications from an additional 20 countries after an expansion of travel restrictions took effect Jan. 1.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, in a memo released Thursday, said it would pause the review of all pending applications for visas, green cards, citizenship or asylum from immigrants from the additional countries. The memo also outlines plans to re-review applications of immigrants from these countries as far back as 2021.

The list, which is composed mostly of countries in Africa, includes Angola, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

Last month, the Trump administration expanded the list of countries with travel restrictions to the U.S. from 19 to 39, plus the Palestinian Authority. The move comes as the administration is bringing sharper scrutiny of those who have followed legal steps to seek permanent status in the U.S.

"USCIS remains dedicated to ensuring aliens from high-risk countries of concern who have entered the United States do not pose risks to national security or public safety," the memo states as rational for the pause and reviews. "To faithfully uphold United States immigration law, the flow of aliens from countries with high overstay rates, significant fraud, or both must stop."

There are some exceptions outlined in the memo, including athletes and members of their teams competing in the World Cup and 2026 Olympics, both hosted by the U.S. this year.

The administration first suggested it would expand the restrictions after the arrest of an Afghan national suspect in the shooting of two National Guard troops over Thanksgiving weekend.

Towards the end of 2025, DHS began taking steps to further pause and review these legal avenues of migration. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that oversees processing of applications including for visas, naturalizations and asylum, announced it would re-review the status of everyone who had been admitted into the U.S. as a refugee under the Biden administration, essentially reopening those cases.

The agency also previously announced an indefinite pause in all processing of asylum applications while it works through its backlog.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Wildfire smoke is an emerging nationwide crisis for the United States. Supercharged by climate change, blazes are swelling into monsters that consume vast landscapes and entire towns.

A growing body of evidence reveals that these conflagrations are killing far more people than previously known, as smoke travels hundreds or even thousands of miles, aggravating conditions like asthma and heart disease. One study, for instance, estimated that last January’s infernos in Los Angeles didn’t kill 30 people, as the official tally reckons, but 440 or more once you factor in the smoke. Another recent study estimated that wildfire haze already kills 40,000 Americans a year, which could increase to 71,000 by 2050.

Two additional studies published last month paint an even grimmer picture of the crisis in the U.S. and elsewhere. The first finds that emissions of greenhouse gases and airborne particles from wildfires globally may be 70% higher than once believed. The second finds that Canada’s wildfires in 2023 significantly worsened childhood asthma across the border in Vermont. Taken together, they illustrate the desperate need to protect public health from the growing threat of wildfire smoke, like better monitoring of air quality with networks of sensors.

The emissions study isn’t an indictment of previous estimates, but a revision of them based on new data. Satellites have spied on wildfires for decades, though in a somewhat limited way — they break up the landscape into squares measuring 500 meters by 500 meters, or about 1,600 feet by 1,600 feet. If a wildfire doesn’t fully fill that space, it’s not counted. This new study increases that resolution to 20 meters by 20 meters (roughly 66 feet by 66 feet) in several key fire regions, meaning it can capture multitudes of smaller fires.

Individually, tinier blazes are not producing as much smoke as the massive conflagrations that are leveling cities in the American West. But “they add up, and add up big time,” said Guido van der Werf, a wildfire researcher at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands and lead author of the paper. “They basically double the amount of burned area we have globally.”

With the 500-meter satellite data, the previous estimate was around 400 million hectares charred each year. Adding the small fires bumps that up to 800 million hectares, roughly the size of Australia. In some parts of the world, such as Europe and Southeast Asia, burned area triples or even quadruples with this improved resolution. While scientists used to think annual wildfire emissions were around 2 gigatons of carbon, or about a fifth of what humanity produces from burning fossil fuels, that’s now more like 3.4 gigatons with this new estimate.

The type of fire makes a huge difference in the emissions, too. A forest fire has a large amount of biomass to burn — brushes, grasses, trees, sometimes even part of the soil — and turn into carbon dioxide and methane and particulate matter, but a grass fire on a prairie has much less. Blazes also burn at dramatically different rates: Flames can race quickly through woodland, but carbon-rich ground known as peat can smolder for days or weeks. Peat fires are so persistent, in fact, that when they ignite in the Arctic, they can remain hidden as snow falls, then pop up again as temperatures rise and everything melts. Scientists call them zombie fires. “It really matters where you’re burning and also how intense the fire can become,” van der Werf said.

But why would a fire stay small, when we’ve seen in recent years just how massive and destructive these blazes can get? It’s partly due to fragmentation of the landscape: Roads can prevent them from spreading, and firefighters stop them from reaching cities. And in general, a long history of fire suppression means they’re often quickly extinguished. (Ironically, this has also helped create some monsters, because vegetation builds up across the landscape, ready to burn. This shakes up the natural order of things, in which low-intensity fires from lightning strikes have cleared dead brush, resetting an ecosystem for new growth — which is why Indigenous tribes have long done prescribed burns.) Farmers, too, burn their waste biomass and obviously prevent the flames from getting out of hand.

Whereas in remote areas, like boreal forests in the far north, lightning strikes typically ignite fires, the study found that populated regions produce a lot of smaller fires. In general, the more people dotting the landscape, the more sources of ignition: cigarette butts, electrical equipment producing sparks, even chains dragging from trucks.

Yes, these smaller fires are less destructive than the behemoths, but they can still be catastrophic in a more indirect way, by pouring smoke into populated areas. “Those small fires are not the ones that cause the most problems,” van der Werf said. “But of course they’re more frequent, close to places where people live, and that also has a health impact.”

Read Next Wildfire smoke could soon kill 71,000 Americans every yearMatt Simon
That is why the second study on asthma is so alarming. Researchers compared the extremely smoky year of 2023 in Vermont to 2022 and 2024, when skies were clearer. They were interested in PM 2.5, or particulate matter smaller than 2.5 millionths of a meter, from wildfire smoke pouring in from Quebec, Canada. “That can be especially challenging to dispel from lungs, and especially irritating to those airways,” said Anna Maassel, a doctoral student at the University of Vermont and lead author of the study. “There is research that shows that exposure to wildfire smoke can have much longer-term impacts, including development of asthma, especially for early exposure as a child.”

This study, though, looked at the exacerbation of asthma symptoms in children already living with the condition. While pediatric asthma patients typically have fewer attacks in the summer because they’re not in school and constantly exposed to respiratory viruses and other indoor triggers, the data showed that their conditions were much less controlled during the summer of 2023 as huge wildfires burned. (Clinically, “asthma control” refers to milder symptoms like coughing and shortness of breath as well as severe problems like attacks. So during that summer, pediatric patients were reporting more symptoms.) At the same time, climate change is extending growing seasons, meaning plants produce more pollen, which also exacerbates that chronic disease. “All of those factors compound to really complicate what health care providers have previously understood to be a safe time of year for children with asthma,” Maassel said.

Researchers are also finding that as smoke travels through the atmosphere, it transforms. It tends to produce ozone, for instance, that irritates the lungs and triggers asthma. “There’s also the potential for increased formation of things like formaldehyde, which is also harmful to human health. It’s a hazardous air pollutant,” said Rebecca Hornbrook, who studies wildfire smoke at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, or NCAR, but wasn’t involved in either study, though a colleague was involved in the emissions one. (Last month, the Trump administration announced plans to dismantle NCAR, which experts say could have catastrophic effects.)

As wildfires worsen, so too does the public health crisis of smoke, even in places that never had to deal with the haze before. Governments now have to work diligently to protect their people, like improving access to air purifiers, especially in schools. “This is no longer an isolated or geographically confined issue,” Maassel said. “It’s really spreading globally and to places that have never experienced it before.”

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/health/wildfire-smoke-is-a-national-crisis-and-its-worse-than-you-think/.