Wildfires Highlight What’s ‘Gone Wrong’ in Pollution Mitigation

Choking wildfires have been inundating swaths of the U.S. with smoke pollution this month as blazes tear through the West Coast, a health crisis created by gaps in national air law and forest management challenges, experts say.

Denver, Colo. experienced some of the worst soot-filled air pollution among all major cities in the world as fires continued to rage in California, according to IQAir pollution index readings last weekend. Blazes like the massive Bootleg Fire in Oregon are also sending plumes of traveling smoke to faraway states like Minnesota, which have had to warn residents about the elevated levels of ...