Pollution from wildfires constitutes a growing source of poor air quality globally. To protect health, governments largely rely on citizens to limit their own wildfire smoke exposures, but the effectiveness of this strategy is hard to observe.
By producing a frst-of-its-kind, decadal-scale wildfre plume rise climatology in the Western U.S. and Canada, we identify trends toward enhanced plume top heights, aerosol loading aloft, and nearsurface smoke injection throughout the American West.
Health status depends on multiple genetic and non-genetic factors. Nonheritable factors (such as lifestyle and environmental factors) have stronger impact on immune responses than genetic factors. Firefighters work is associated with exposure to air pollution and heat stress, as well as: extreme physical effort, mental stress, or a changed circadian rhythm, among others.
The increased frequency of wildfires in the Western United States has raised public awareness of the impact of wildfire smoke on air quality and human health. Exposure to wildfire smoke has been linked to an increased risk of cancer and cardiorespiratory morbidity. Evidence-driven interventions can alleviate the adverse health impact of wildfire smoke.
With exposure to wildland fire smoke projectedto further increase (Barbero et al. 2015) there is aclear need for efforts to better mitigate or adapt tosmoke impacts in high-risk areas. Such efforts relyon an understanding of how people perceive, planfor, and respond to smoke.
Wildfires have frequently occurred in the western United States (US) during the summer and fall seasons in recent years. This study measures the PM2.5 infiltration factor in seven residences recruited from five dense communities in Seattle, Washington, during a 2020 wildfire episode and evaluates the impacts of HEPA-based portable air cleaner (PAC) use on reducing indoor PM2.5 levels.
The NWCG Smoke Management Guide for Prescribed Fire contains information on prescribed fire smoke management techniques, air quality regulations, smoke monitoring, modeling, communication, public perception of prescribed fire and smoke, climate change, practical meteorological approaches, and smoke tools.
Prescribed fires in forest ecosystems can negatively impact human health and safety by transporting smoke downwind into nearby communities. Smoke transport to communities is known to occur around Bend, Oregon, United States of America (USA), where burning at the wildland–urban interface in the Deschutes National Forest resulted in smoke intrusions into populated areas.
There is an urgent need for next-generation smoke research and forecasting (SRF) systems to meet the challenges of the growing air quality, health and safety concerns associated with wildland fire emissions.
Wildland firefighters are exposed to wood smoke, which contains hazardous air pollutants, by suppressing thousands of wildfires across the U. S. each year.