Recent air-quality alerts in major cities due to the wildfires in Canada, Hawaii and Greece have put fine particulate matter (PM) pollution and consequent health issues into the spotlight. We discuss this environmental issue and its impact on cardiovascular health with Jason D. Sacks, a senior science advisor, and Wayne E. Cascio, a cardiologist, representing the US Environmental Protection Agency, and Jonathan D. Newman, a cardiologist at the New York University School of Medicine whose research focus is on how air pollution affects cardiovascular health and possible measures to ameliorate these effects.