With smoke from wildfires becoming an annual summer occurrence in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley, questions abound about air quality and the health risks associated with the smoke to area residents.
Nancy Johnston, an associate professor of chemistry at Lewis-Clark State College, shares the curiosity, which is why she has been diligently working to find some answers.
Johnston has been studying the valley’s air quality since receiving a grant from the Idaho IDeA Network of Research Excellence (INBRE) in 2019. Last month, she was part of a group that received another grant to study the wildfire smoke in the West.