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Article snippet: After weeks of battling deadly wildfires across California, Oregon, and other states, local residents will probably have to deal with smoke and ash for weeks or even months. If that’s you, you may be concerned about the long-term health risks of breathing the smoke that remains, and looking for ways to protect yourself or your family. While smoke contains carbon monoxide and particulate matter that can be hazardous to your health, the Environmental Protection Agency says “the long-term risks from short-term smoke exposures are quite low,” according to a guide to wildfire smoke for public health officials. However, the E.P.A. also suggests that more vulnerable populations (children, older people, pregnant women and people with asthma or cardiovascular disease) may be more susceptible to the health hazards of wildfire smoke. Of course, pollutants and the health hazards that come with them aren’t limited to areas exposed to wildfire smoke. We all breathe in harmful particulates. “The air we breathe all the time has fairly significant pollution in it,” said Tim Heffernan, a science writer and editor at Wirecutter, a New York Times company. Studies that definitively link air purifiers to long-term health benefits are rare, because long-term health is affected by multiple factors. (This is also why air purifiers may not be marketed as medical devices in the United States.) However, Mr. Heffernan explained, “It is absolutely, unequivocally true that particulate pollutio... Link to the full article to read more