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.