Indoor wildfire smoke perceptions “nudge” mitigation behaviors

As wildfire smoke can travel long distances and affect more communities, understanding the link between smoke perception, health, and behavior is crucial for reducing smoke exposure. This study examines how indoor olfactory perception of wildfire smoke is associated with self-reported smoke mitigation behaviors (SMB) and health symptoms. In this work, we analyzed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “Smoke Sense” dataset using Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE), controlling for education, activity level, and percentage of time spent indoors. Compared to smelling smoke outdoors only, smelling smoke both indoors and outdoors significantly increased the odds of adopting SMB and reporting acute health symptoms. These results demonstrate that subjective perception can be leveraged to reduce indoor exposure and “nudge” individual mitigation behaviors. Public health guidance could incorporate outdoor air quality indicators, such as the Air Quality Index (AQI), together with indoor olfactory cues gathered through representative public polling on indoor smoke perception to communicate risks more effectively and support more informed decision-making on indoor smoke mitigation. • We conduct a secondary analysis with EPA Smoke Sense pilot data • Smelling smoke indoors increased reported use of smoke-mitigation actions • Smelling indoor wildfire smoke increased likelihood of reported health symptoms • Olfactory perception can be leveraged to reduce indoor exposure to wildfire smoke