A new study from the University of Chicago found that in 2023, air pollution in Canada spiked to levels not seen since 1998 — a direct result of wildfire smoke from the worst fire season since records were kept.

In the most polluted parts of Canada — B.C., Alberta, and the Northwest Territories — fine particulate levels in 2023 were found to be comparable to those in Latin America's most polluted countries, such as Bolivia and Honduras.

This ended a 25-year period of mostly downward trends in air pollution in both Canada and the United States. The report's data is from the university's Air Quality Life Index, which was launched in 2018 and measures pollution levels going back to 1998.

In the United States, fine particulate pollution levels reached their highest levels since 2011, with p

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