Someone I know in one of the areas most affected at present reported that the smoke looks blue and the air smells “chemical” in nature.
I’m a couple hours south. While I definitely don’t think its a good idea to take my walks, I can’t say I notice what he’s noticing.
I don’t remember ever being in area beset from the verified smoke of verified forest fires hundreds of miles away, so I can’t make any comparisons to what I am experiencing in my area.
But I wouldn’t put it past our evil rulers to try to poison us with something and blame forest fires, nor would I put it past them to allow a lot of fires to be deliberately set. Perhaps both is going on.
I have a house on the edge of wooded area, as I am sure many do, and am slightly worried.
The odor comes from turpines common from pine species trees.
Think turpentine. The odor is quite strong when a pine forest burns. You can read the abstract of this paper and it is a good study.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9393878/
The smoke can be rather nasty. I feel bad for the young kids who suck this stuff non-stop for months in the West. It has to have some long-term health impacts.