A shows air pollution like soot, dust and smoke is down around the country with one exception: wildfire prone areas like the Mountain West.
is an environmental chemist and researcher on the study. He said implementation of the is largely responsible for air pollution going down in the United States overall. But in the West, we鈥檙e seeing worsening air quality because of wildfire smoke.
The study shows the region that鈥檚 most being affected by smoke and by deteriorating air quality is northern California, Nevada, Oregon, eastern Washington, parts of Utah, parts of Colorado, almost all of Idaho, all of Montana, and all of Wyoming.
Jaffe says this is a concern because it鈥檚 in the West and because it鈥檚 part of a larger pattern.
鈥淚t鈥檚 all related back to climate change,鈥� he said, 鈥渁nd how we manage our forests.鈥�
Wildfires have already ravaged areas of the Mountain West this summer and are still on high alert.
To find the Air Quality Index in your state, you can visit .
This story was produced by the Mountain West 暗黑爆料 Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, Yellowstone Public Radio in Montana, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.
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