Wildfire Smoke and Air Quality: Keeping Kids Safe

A few years ago, wildfires on the West Coast turned midday skies an eerie orange and pushed smoke clear across the country, so that families thousands of miles from any flame woke up to hazy air and scratchy throats. More recently, smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted south and settled over cities that had never given air quality a second thought. Air quality has quietly become a parenting issue, as children can feel its impacts first. But once you know what to look for, there is a lot you can do to protect your child.

What Affects Air Quality

Air quality measures how many irritating or harmful particles and gases are floating in the air. The factor that matters most for kids is PM2.5, shorthand for fine particles smaller than about a thirtieth of the width of a human hair. They are tiny enough to slip deep into the lungs and even cross into the bloodstream.

Several things create those particles in the air. Wildfire smoke is the source that grabs headlines, because it can travel enormous distances and worsen the air in a state or even a country far away. Not all smoke is equal, though. Fires that burn homes and buildings can be harsher still, since plastics and old building materials add their own chemicals to the air. Everyday sources add to the load too, including traffic exhaust, factories and power plants, and wood smoke from stoves and fireplaces. On hot, sunny days, that pollution can leak into ground-level ozone, the invisible haze behind many summer smog alerts. Add seasonal pollen and dust, and the mix shifts hour to hour.

Why Kids Are More at Risk

Children are not just small adults when it comes to air pollution. Pound for pound, they take in more air than grown-ups, and they breathe faster, so more of whatever is floating around ends up in their lungs. Those lungs and their airways, the branching tubes that carry air in and out, are still developing up until about 10 years old, which means pollution can be more harmful to the youngest children. And kids are usually the ones playing hard outside, breathing deeply right when activity peaks.

Wildfire smoke is especially hard on young lungs: its particles are smaller than those in everyday pollution and reach deeper into the airways, which is part of why it is roughly ten times more harmful to children's respiratory health than pollution from other sources.

Put together, this means bad air can leave almost any child with a cough, a scratchy or burning throat, itchy eyes, chest tightness, or a headache. Those symptoms are worth taking seriously, but for most healthy children, symptoms ease once the air clears and the child is back in a cleaner space.

Which Kids Are Most Sensitive

You may notice air quality alerts that mention “sensitive” populations. But what does that mean? Infants and toddlers, whose lungs are the least developed, sit near the top of the list. So do children with asthma or other lung conditions, along with kids whose allergies keep their airways primed to overreact. If your child is in one of these groups, keep reading for tips to clean your indoor air and manage asthma.

Is Outdoor Play Safe? 

On a hazy morning, the question most parents want answered is simple: can my child go outside today? The most reliable way to decide is the Air Quality Index, or AQI: a daily score that boils all those particles and gases down to one number and a color, running from green on clean days up through yellow, orange, red, and purple as the air gets worse. Checking it before your child heads out takes only seconds.

You do not need any special equipment. Most phone weather apps now show your local AQI, and you can look it up for free by ZIP code at AirNow.gov, the government's air quality site.

Here’s what each of the colors and scores mean:

• Green (0 to 50): Clean air. Kids can play outside as long as they like.
• Yellow (51 to 100): Usually fine for healthy children. Shorten hard play for kids with asthma or those under five, and watch how they feel.
• Orange (101 to 150): Keep sensitive kids indoors, and hold everyone else to a shorter, calmer time outside.
• Red or purple (151 or higher): Bring all kids indoors and postpone outdoor sports until the number drops. This is when schools and leagues should pause practice too.

It also helps to get ahead of the smoke: sign up for local air quality alerts so reminders reach you before the haze does.

On the rare day you truly must be outside together, a well-fitting N95 or KN95 respirator protects better than a cloth or surgical mask, which does little against fine smoke particles. Kids around age two and up can wear one, but a snug fit is essential and can be hard on a small face, so ask your clinician what fits your child. Humidifiers and breathing through a damp washcloth do not help, so on very smoky days, the safest move is simply to stay inside.

Cleaning Your Indoor Air

When the outdoor air is bad, your home becomes your child's clean-air shelter. Start by keeping smoke out: close windows and doors, and set your air conditioner or car system to recirculate rather than pull in outside air. Hold off on activities that add particles indoors, such as frying on the stovetop, vacuuming, or burning candles and incense.

To actively clean the air, a portable air purifier with a HEPA filter, a dense filter that traps very fine particles, in your child's bedroom or play area is one of the most effective steps you can take. If you have central heating or air conditioning, fitting it with a high-grade filter rated MERV 13 or higher helps the whole house. A do-it-yourself filter made from a box fan and a furnace filter also works surprisingly well on a budget. One caution: skip any device sold as an ionizer or ozone generator, because ozone is itself a lung irritant.

Indoor air is not only a wildfire concern. Day to day, the air inside can be even more polluted than the air outdoors, partly because everyday sources build up in enclosed spaces. The biggest risk is tobacco and vape smoke, which is genuinely harmful to growing lungs. Keeping your home and car completely smoke-free is one of the most protective choices a family can make. Good ventilation on clear-air days, a working range hood over a gas stove, and routine dusting with a HEPA vacuum round out the basics.

Air Pollution and Asthma in Children

For a child with asthma, poor air quality is not just uncomfortable–it can set off a flare. The evidence here is striking: in a study of more than 57,000 children in Alberta, Canada, kids with asthma landed in the emergency department for flare-ups noticeably more often on days when wildfire smoke moved through. And that jump showed up specifically on smoke days rather than from everyday city pollution.

The good news is that a little preparation goes a long way. Make sure your child has an up-to-date asthma action plan that spells out daily medicines and exactly what to do when symptoms ramp up, and keep a copy with school and any sports programs. Keep the rescue inhaler filled and close at hand when there’s smoke outside, and start closing up the house and running the air purifier before the AQI spikes rather than after. It also helps to check the rescue inhaler's expiration date, and if it has sat unused, prime it with a few test sprays so it works the moment your child needs it. Many families find that the same everyday habits that support better asthma control also blunt the effect of bad-air days.

Watch for signs that a flare is getting ahead of you: coughing that will not settle, wheezing, fast or labored breathing, or a child too breathless to speak in full sentences. If the usual rescue medicine is not helping, that is your cue to seek same-day care, and any real struggle to breathe is an emergency.

Breathing a Little Easier

Air quality will keep making headlines, and the specifics will change from one wildfire season to the next. What stays the same is the playbook: know what tends to pollute your local air, check the AQI the way you check the weather, keep your indoor air clean, and give kids with asthma or sensitive lungs a little extra protection. Small, steady habits are what keep your child breathing easy, whatever blows in.

Need a pediatrician who will partner with you to support your child's health, on smoky days and clear ones alike? Schedule a visit with one of our clinicians.

References

1. Aguilera, R., Corringham, T., Gershunov, A., & Benmarhnia, T. (2021). Wildfire smoke impacts respiratory health more than fine particles from other sources: Observational evidence from Southern California. Nature Communications, 12(1), 1493. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21708-0

2 .Durrwachter-Erno, K., & Patel, L. (2026). Wildfire smoke, climate change & children's health: How to keep kids safe. American Academy of Pediatrics. https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/at-home/Pages/climate-change-has-sparked-more-wildfires-why-kids-are-most-at-risk.aspx

3. Moore, L. E., Oliveira, A., Zhang, R., Behjat, L., & Hicks, A. (2023). Impacts of wildfire smoke and air pollution on a pediatric population with asthma: A population-based study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(3), 1937. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20031937

4. Zajac, L. (2026). Indoor air pollution & children's health: Tips for healthier breathing at home. American Academy of Pediatrics. https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/at-home/Pages/indoor-air-pollution-and-childrens-health-clearing-the-air-for-healthier-breathing-at-home.aspx