Highlights from EPA's Wildland Fire Health Research
Transcript of Highlights from EPA's Wildland Fire Health Research
Highlights from EPA’s Wildland Fire Health Research
Overview
Measurements
Outreach
Wayne E. Cascio, Lisa K. Baxter, Christina L. Baghdikian, Beth Hassett-Sipple
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development
In August 2017, EPA researchers launched the Smoke Sense initiative via a mobile app for people impacted by wildfire
smoke to get information on air quality and to learn about ways to protect their health from smoke exposure.
• Combines social, natural, and public health approaches and provides information about current and future air quality,
fire locations, and smoke forecasts
• Uses gamification to anonymously collect information about who, when, and how frequently people are harmed by smoke
• Is opportunity to study effective health risk communication strategies to educate people on ways to reduce exposure to smoke
• As of October 1, 2018, used by more than 13,000 people, primarily from California, Washington, and Oregon
EPA partnered with the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Tall
Timbers to launch the Wildland Fire Sensor Challenge.
Public Health and Environmental Impacts
Modeling
Warmer colors
indicate the
presence of
aerosols.
Community Health Vulnerability Index (CHVI): A new tool for public
health officials to identify vulnerable populations at risk from wildland fire
smoke exposure
• Considers factors known to define susceptibility to air-pollutant-related
health effects
• Can be combined with air quality forecast data generated by models to
develop maps of counties, regions, or other designated areas where at-risk
populations liveCHVI for Continental U.S.
Factors of Vulnerability
• Child/Adult Asthma
• COPD
• Obesity
• Diabetes
• Hypertension
• % population age 65+
• Income, education,
poverty,
unemployment
Source: Rappold AG, Reyes J, Pouliot G, Cascio WE, Diaz-Sanchez D. 2017. Environ Sci Technol , 51, 6674-6682.
Breakpoints 15, 17, 19, 1nd 20 correspond
to 50th, 75th, 90th, and 95th percentile of
CHVI scores, respectively
Researchers are working to develop and evaluate air pollution sensor
systems that can be deployed during active fires and prescribed burns
to provide more robust smoke emissions data.
Laboratory and field studies are being conducted to collect data to
improve emissions inventories for wild and prescribed fires and to
inform decisions on the best times, locations, and conditions to burn.
Study in Flint Hills, Kansas
• The central United States is home to
the largest remaining tall grass
prairie in North America.
• Prescribed burns encourage growth
of native grasses by eliminating
invasive plants and rejuvenating soil.
• Aerial sampling systems measure
PM, black and brown carbon, volatile
organic compounds, and
background ozone concentrations.
• The challenge was designed to stimulate technological innovation
in the private and public sectors toward accurate, lower cost and
maintenance air sensors for use in areas impacted by wildland fire
smoke.
• Ten air sensor prototypes were submitted to EPA in February 2018.
• Challenge winners were announced in September 2018 at the Air
Sensors International Conference in Oakland, CA.
NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is a key instrument aboard two satellites: (1) Terra (passing north to south
across the equator in the morning) and (2) Aqua (passing south to north over the equator in the afternoon).
• Provides near-real-time observations with good spatial resolution and coverage
• Informs development of validated, global, interactive Earth system models, including air quality models used to evaluate wildland fires
MODIS aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 10-km resolution
(August 25, 2013, at 18 coordinated universal time [UTC])
CMAQ 12-km resolution modeled AOD and visible
smoke (mostly from the Rim Fire, Sierra Nevada, CA)
US locations experiencing elevated wildfire-
related PM2.5 concentrations – 2008 to 2012
EPA scientists and Australian colleagues were the first to characterize PM2.5-
related excess mortality and morbidity events from wildland fire smoke
exposure in the United States and the economic values of these impacts
over an extended time period (5 years).
• Northern California, Oregon, and Idaho in the west and Florida, Louisiana,
and Georgia in the east were affected most by wildland fire events.
• Estimated economic impacts in 2010 U.S. dollars:
– Short-term exposures: $11-20 billion
– Long-term exposures: $6-170 billion
Source: Fann, N, Alman B, Broome RA, Morgan GC, Johnston FH, Pouliot G, Rappold AG. 2018. Science of the Total Env. 610-611, 802-809.
Toxicity
To study potential health effects of breathing wildfire smoke, EPA researchers developed a novel combustion
and smoke collection system to investigate whether PM in wildfire smoke is associated with different health
effects depending on the type of word burned (red oak, peat, pine needles, pine, and eucalyptus) and
combustion phase (flaming versus smoldering).
• Observed PM from different wood burned and combustion phases had appreciable differences in lung
toxicity and mutagenic potency.
– On an equal mass basis, flaming samples had higher lung toxicity and mutagenic potency than
smoldering samples.
– When emissions factors were taken into account, smoldering samples had a greater effect.
Source: Kim YH, Warren SH, Krantz QT, King C, Jaskot R, Preston WT, George BJ, Hays MD, Landis MS, Higuchi M, DeMarini DM, Gilmour MI;. 2018. EHP 126(1): :017011-1-14.
California Wildland Fire 2015 All-Cardiovascular Causes
of Emergency Department Visits: Wildfire PM2.5
associated with heart attacks and strokes for all adults,
particularly those more than 65 years old
1.2
1.1
1.0
0.9
Rel
ativ
e R
isk
All Adults
Adults 45-64 Adults 65+
Light Medium Heavy
Wettstein Z, Hoshiko S, Cascio WE, Rappold AG et al. JAHA April 11, 2018
All-Cardiovascular Causes Lag Day 1
Density of Smoke
Jason Gu (left), Bryan Tomko (right) with SenSevere/Sensit
Technologies in Pittsburgh, PA, and Ramachandran Subramanian with
Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh (not shown)
First-Place
Winners
The intensity of wildfires is growing; these events promote and are exacerbated by long-term changes in the environment.
• EPA is interested in emissions from wildland fire, which includes both prescribed fire and wildfire.
• The 2014 National Emissions Inventory estimates about 30% of fine particle (PM2.5) emissions are related to wildland fire.
• Smoke plumes can extend for hundreds of miles across state and national boundaries, making any given wildland fire and a season of wildfire
events issues of national concern.
• Smoke exposure is associated with respiratory effects (e.g. bronchitis, pneumonia, and exacerbation of COPD and asthma) and might cause
cardiovascular effects.
• The EPA Office of Research and Development is emphasizing wildland fire research as an integrated science focus area and expanding
collaborations with other federal, state, and local agencies, as well as tribal organizations.
The views expressed in this poster are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.