Last summer, smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketed Vermont, darkening the sunset and significantly reducing the air quality. But Anna Maassel, a PhD candidate in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and a student fellow at the Gund Institute, is researching another angle to wildfire smoke that hasn't been studied in the region: its effect on childhood asthma.
Vermont has one of the highest rates of childhood asthma in the country, and the effects of wildfire smoke have not been fully researched, especially in the Northeast.
"A lot that's been studied about wildfire smoke so far, and health impacts, is focused on areas that are really familiar with it, like California or Australia. And it's pretty new to Vermont and this part of the United States, so not much research has been done yet," Maassel said. "And a lot of people are really concerned about it. So studying it here at a local level has benefits for our community."
