Michigan’s skies are blanketed in haze, clouding the outlook for metro Detroiters. Wildfires burning hundreds of miles away in Canada are sending plumes of smoke all over the American Midwest, and that smoke makes breathing hard and sometimes affects our health in untold ways. 

We know breathing wildfire smoke near the source is harmful, but there’s still uncertainty about what happens as the smoke travels. 

Some emerging research suggests wildfire smoke traveling long distances chemically changes and could become even more harmful.

Pulmonary specialist Dr. Erika Moseson has been closely following the issue of wildfire smoke and lung health. She hosts the podcast “Air Health, Our Health,” where she breaks down how things like wildfire smoke  — and how climate change, which is intensifying those fires — affect our health.