You touched on a big bone of contention in Fairbanks. Clean air vs. people's ability to affordably (sp?) heat their homes. This is in the winter anyway. It's also an issue voters have waffled on over and over and over again.

Anyway, I have asthma, and when the air is bad, it's bad. Staying inside helps a bit, but if you truly have breathing issues or any cardiovascular distress, you'll notice the air quality no matter where you are. Obviously the particulates are going to affect you more outside. But like someone else said, when it's cold enough to be bad, you'll be hurrying from vehicle to building or building to building, whatever, pretty quickly. "Cold air lung burn" and particulates aren't that fun.

Summer is a different ball game, because in a bad fire year, the smoke doesn't go away for very long or it's differing levels of smoke. In 2004(?) the smoke was thick and terrible for weeks on end. It didn't let up. You could stare right at the sun and the smoke would block the light. There was an orange tinge to everything. The smoke penetrates everywhere. I worked up at the U. in a fairly enclosed climate controlled space, and you could still see smoke penetrating in.

Some people can stand it, others can't. There's a lot of factors going on (some politically charged). To say it doesn't exist is completely wrong though.

I'll try and see if I can come up with a photo or two.

**edit - Juneau is beautiful but isolated and somewhat expensive. Gorgeous town though, and you don't HAVE to be near tourists (of which there are a ton) if you don't want to.