If you lived in Montana last year, you know it was smoky. But data requested by the Environmental Quality Council puts some numbers to the haze the state endured. The Department of Environmental Quality examined air quality in locations across the state in 2021 and compared it to the prior two years.

And the Department of Health and Human Services examined emergency room visits during some of the more prominent fires in 2021 and compared those to 2020 and 2019. The data reflect visits where the patient complained of asthma, shortness of breath, wheezing or specifically referenced conditions related to fire or smoke. The full report is here.

During 2020, ED trends nationwide were abnormal due to changes in utilization caused by the COVID pandemic. Total numbers of ED visits decreased sharply between March 2020 and June 2020, as states implemented lockdown restrictions and patients delayed or avoided health care encounters when
feasible.

Some COVID respiratory symptoms are like those associated with the inhalation of wildfire smoke, so correlation of smoke with respiratory ED visits may be confounded by underlying rates of COVID infection.