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An environmental group has warned that the climate change will intensify U.S. wildfires and the smoky air is going to cause serious respiratory problems to citizens those who are far beyond those burned areas.

More than 200 million Americans lived in countries that were beset by wildfire smoke two years ago. Analysis by Natural Resources Defense Council also found that there were nearly 50 times more square miles that had medium to high-density smoke lasting at least 12 days than were burned by fire, reported USA Today.

“It affects a much wider area of the United States than people realize,” said author Kim Knowlton, an NRDC senior scientist and Columbia University health professor, according to USA Today.

She also said that the smoke contained fine-particle air pollution and can cause number of diseases ranging from asthma attacks and pneumonia. Further it can also worsen chronic heart and lung diseases.

Texas was among those who were hit hardest in 2011, when medium to high-density smoke lingered at least a a week. The area was home to 25 million people.

Illinois was among which recorded no wildfires within its borders and ranked second. Nearly 12 million affected residents of Illinois drifted in from elsewhere.

“Our landscapes are becoming more of a tinderbox,” she added.

In 2011, more than 8 million acres burned nationwide. It was the fourth highest since 1985.

“Heat waves are very likely to occur more frequently and last longer,” said Thomas Stocker, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Working Group 1, according to USA Today.

“Communities need safeguards against this peril,and our country needs standards to curb the unlimited carbon pollution from power plants that’s driving climate change,” said Kim Knowlton, a senior scientist in NRDC’s Health and Environment Program and analysis director according to Nature World News.