One veteran, who was accidentally sprayed in the face with the chemical DMMP in 1984, found himself wheezing and coughing the next day, symptoms that ended up lasting several weeks.
Wildfire smoke and ash can irritate eyes, nose, throat and lungs, making people cough or wheeze and can make it hard to breathe, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
That said, symptoms of asthma include coughing, a feeling of chest tightness, dyspnea, or difficulty breathing, and wheezing, or a high-pitched whistling sound that usually happens during exhalation.
By the time I was my daughter's age, his breath was a wheeze, embarrassing to hear; he could not climb stairs without resting every third or fourth step.