On days with poor air quality, you might feel a little down. And it may not be your imagination.

David Molitor,, an associate professor of finance in the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, draws a connection between suicide – and air pollution from faraway wildfires.

“Air pollution causes stress to cells throughout your entire body,” said Molitor. “Now, why that affects mental health – is this because air pollution is causing direct physical damage to brain cells? Or is it because high air pollution days are just hard for people to deal with. You miss days of work, and that’s a big bummer!”

Molitor and other researchers looked at twelve years’ worth of suicides and the air conditions when they occur.

Also, suicides are up about 30 percent over the last twenty years.

The study is here.

Air pollution and suicide in rural and urban America: Evidence from wildfire smoke | PNAS