Boreal forest fires are a significant source of chemicals to the atmosphere including numerous non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs). We report airborne measurements of NMHCs, acetone and methanol from > 500 whole air samples collected over Eastern Canada, including interception of several different boreal biomass burning plumes. From these and concurrent measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) we derive fire emission ratios for 29 different species relative to the emission of CO. These range from 8.9 ± 3.2 ppt ppb<sup>−1</sup> CO for methanol to 0.007 ± 0.004 ppt ppb<sup>−1</sup> CO for cyclopentane. The ratios are in good to excellent agreement with recent literature values. Using the GEOS-Chem global 3-D chemical transport model (CTM) we show the influence of biomass burning on the global distributions of benzene, toluene, ethene and propene (species considered generally as indicative tracers of anthropogenic activity). Using our derived emission ratios and the GEOS-Chem CTM, we show that biomass burning can be the largest fractional contributor to observed benzene, toluene, ethene and propene in many global locations. The widespread biomass burning contribution to atmospheric benzene, a heavily regulated air pollutant, suggests that pragmatic approaches are needed when setting air quality targets as tailpipe and solvent emissions continue to decline. We subsequently determine the extent to which the 28 Global WMO-GAW stations worldwide are influenced by biomass burning sourced benzene, toluene, ethene and propene when compared to their exposure to anthropogenic emissions.