U.S. wildfire smoke poses health hazards to distant communities: report

By Laura Zuckerman (Reuters) – Massive clouds of smoke spewed from U.S. wildfires raging ever more intensely in recent summers send soot, carbon monoxide and other toxins far and wide, posing health hazards for distant communities, scientists warned in a study on Thursday. The Natural Resources Defense Council report was based on government satellite images of smoke plumes from 2011, the latest such data available, providing a national snapshot of wildfire-related air pollution that year. …