Visits to the emergency room related to mental health among young adults, teenagers, and children spiked between 2011 and 2020, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. The annual number rose form 4.8 million to 7.5 million over that period, and much of the uptick was driven by a five-fold rise in suicide-related visits.
The only break much of America can hope for anytime soon from eye-watering dangerous smoke from fire-struck Canada is brief bouts of shirt-soaking sweltering heat and humidity from a southern heat wave that has already proven deadly, forecasters say.
Over 120 million Americans were under air quality alerts on Wednesday from the smoke of the Canadian wildfires and it will continue on Thursday. Meanwhile, the heat continues in the Southern states.
