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In recent years, California experienced the largest, most destructive and deadliest wildfires in its history. Wildfires can cause fatalities and injuries, impair air quality for nearby and distant populations, and devastate the immediate area, leaving communities with often…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Prevention, Prescribed Fire, Safety, Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)
Region(s): California
Keywords: public health, wildfire, fire mitigation, fire suppression, air quality, water quality, power shutoff, forest management

Biomass burning is a large source of uncontrolled air pollutants, including particulate matter (i.e., PM2.5), black carbon (BC), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and carbon monoxide (CO), which have significant effects on air quality, human health, and climate. Measurements of…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Monitoring and Inventory, Safety
Region(s): Eastern
Keywords: PM - particulate matter, PM2.5, black carbon, VOC - volatile organic compounds, CO - carbon monoxide, air quality, wildfires, smoke plumes

Objective: The study examines how wildfire smoke exposure may impact health and safety in the agricultural workplace. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with agricultural employers and focus group discussions were held with farmworkers in three regions of…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Safety
Region(s): California
Keywords: wildfires, agricultural health, farmworkers, safety communication, air quality, smoke exposure

Air quality impacts from wildfires have been dramatic in recent years, with millions of people exposed to elevated and sometimes hazardous fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations for extended periods. Fires emit particulate matter (PM) and gaseous compounds that can…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Prescribed Fire, Safety
Region(s): California, Eastern, Great Basin, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest
Keywords: air quality, human health, PM - particulate matter, PM2.5, health effects, respiratory health, cardiovascular health, wildfire, AQI - Air Quality Index, remote sensing, emission factors

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the potential for co-occurring wildfires pose health threats to people around the globe. Along with the direct impacts of wildfires, exposure to fine particulate matter (PM 2.5)-pollution composed of small inhalable particles with diameters of 2…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Safety
Region(s): California
Keywords: COVID-19, fine particulate matter, PM2.5, public health

This landowner smoke management guidebook was created through a collaboration between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), North Carolina State University, Southern Fire Exchange, Southern Regional Extension Forestry (SREF), and the University of Georgia Warnell School of…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fuels, Planning, Prescribed Fire, Regulations and Legislation, Restoration and Rehabilitation, Safety, Weather
Region(s): Southern
Keywords: smoke management, air quality, public health, PM - particulate matter, smoke dispersion, fuel load, O3 - ozone, liability, mitigation

Part of the FIRE x FAUNA: Wildfire and Prescribed Fire Effects on Wildlife series sponsored by Forest Service Research and Development Cannabis cultivation and wildfires: Where there’s smoke, there’s smoke, Adam Cummings, Ecologist Wildfires ignitions, costs to wildlife, and…
Person: Cummings, Gabriel, Lake
Year: 2020
Type: Media
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Aquatic, Emissions and Smoke, Fire Behavior, Fire Effects, Regulations and Legislation, Safety
Region(s): California
Keywords: cannabis, wildlife, wildfire, rodenticide, cultivation, Indigenous burning, pyrodiversity, fish, solar radiation, inversion, fisheries, smoke density, AOT - aerosol optical thickness, water temperature

In this short webinar, RMRS Research Physical Scientist Shawn Urbanski and Fire Ecologist Duncan Lutes will discuss the current state of the science on wildland fire smoke emissions, including pollutants present in smoke, methods for quantifying emission flux, existing datasets…
Person: Urbanski, Lutes
Year: 2020
Type: Media
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fuels, Models, Safety
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: FOFEM - First Order Fire Effects Model, fuel consumption, smoke prediction, public health, smoke impacts, emission factor, C - carbon, fuelbed properties, PM2.5, smoldering, flaming combustion, PM - particulate matter

Wildland firefighters are exposed to health hazards including inhaling hazardous pollutants from the combustion of live and dead vegetation (smoke) and breathe soil dust, while working long shifts with no respiratory protection. This research brief summarizes a study analyzing…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Safety
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: PM - particulate matter, PM2.5, cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, smoke exposure, firefighter safety, relative risk

Fires burning across the Amazon in the summer of 2019 attracted global attention for the widespread destruction of natural ecosystems and regional smoke production. Using a combination of satellite fire observations and atmospheric modeling, Nawaz and Henze (2020, https://doi.…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Safety
Region(s): International
Keywords: public health, Brazil, air pollution, PM - particulate matter, PM2.5, human health, health impacts

Wildfire frequency and severity are increasing in many locations around the world. Wildfires emit particles and trace gases that are harmful to public health. In this talk, I will share results from several projects around the world that are evaluating the impact that wildfire…
Person: Marlier
Year: 2020
Type: Media
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Climate, Emissions and Smoke, Mapping, Models, Monitoring and Inventory, Safety
Region(s): California, International
Keywords: Indonesia, air quality, public health, air pollution, remote sensing, morbidity, drought, climate change, land management, wildfires, PM - particulate matter, PM2.5

KEY POINTS - Wildland firefighters do not wear respiratory protection while working long hours and can be exposed to elevated concentrations of smoke. There is very limited research on long-term health of wildland firefighters from smoke exposure across an entire career. New…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Safety, Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI)
Region(s): California
Keywords: wildfire, firefighters, outdoor workers, PM - particulate matter, health effects, smoke exposure

[from the text] The danger of catastrophic wildfires is increasing around the globe, with large fires occurring in Australia, Canada, Chile, Indonesia, Portugal, Russia, as well as in the United States over the past decade. A major driver globally is climate change, which is…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Climate, Emissions and Smoke, Fire Occurrence, Hazard and Risk, Safety
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, International, National
Keywords: climate change, fire frequency, public health, PM - particulate matter, respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, wildfire smoke exposure, wildfires

Haze pollution has been an annual environmental problem in the northern region of Thailand. The main causes include agricultural burning and wildfires that are enhanced by the high atmospheric pressure in a geographical plain encircled by mountains. Attempts have been made to…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Outreach, Safety
Region(s): International
Keywords: Thailand, environmental education, haze, pollution, secondary education, learning, place-based learning

[from the text] Weather conditions conducive to extreme bushfires are becoming more frequent as a consequence of climate change.1 Such fires have substantial social, ecological, and economic effects, including the effects on public health associated with smoke, such as premature…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Climate, Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Safety
Region(s): International
Keywords: Australia, air pollutants, air quality, bushfires, mortality, human health, climate change, PM2.5, PM - particulate matter

The Smoke and Roadway Safety Guide provides wildland fire personnel the tools and methods to effectively plan and forecast for roadway smoke impacts and to monitor, respond to, and mitigate smoke on roadways to reduce the risk to the public and fire personnel. This publication:…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fuels, Hazard and Risk, Planning, Prescribed Fire, Safety
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: NWCG - National Wildfire Coordinating Group, risk management, visibility, roads, roadways, management action points, FMP - Fire Management Plan, EARP - Expanded Assessment for Potential Risk

As the population increases, air quality regulations continue to tighten, and stricter controls are applied to other pollution sources, understanding the impacts of prescribed burning emissions is becoming more critical for the land managers in the southern U.S. Although air…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Models, Monitoring and Inventory, Prescribed Fire, Safety
Region(s): Southern
Keywords: air quality, air quality monitoring, air quality modeling, BBEP - Biomass Burning Emissions Product, acres burned, burn activity forecasting, CMAQ - Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling System, DDM - decoupled direct method, environmental justice, PM - particulate matter, PM2.5, GFED - Global Fire Emissions Database, HYSPLIT - Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory, respiratory effects, satellite detection, social vulnerability, smoke exposure, source attribution, source impact, wildfire, wildland fire

Since air pollutants are difficult and expensive to control, a strong scientific underpinning to policies is needed to guide mitigation aimed at reducing the current burden on public health. Much of the evidence concerning hazard identification and risk quantification related to…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Safety
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, International, National
Keywords: epidemiology, desert dust, air pollution, households, megacities, PM - particulate matter, toxicology, wildfires, PM2.5, air quality, health effects

Objectives There is limited knowledge of exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in wildland firefighters, or of the effectiveness of interventions to reduce this. This study of wildland firefighters assessed whether PAHs were present and considered respiratory…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Safety
Region(s): International
Keywords: PAH - polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, wildland firefighters, 1-hydroxypyrene, Intervention, skin hygiene, skin wipes, napthalene

The aim of the paper is to describe the spread forest fire event occurred in the Italian Alps in 2017 under extremely drought conditions. In the study the root causes of wildfires and their direct relapses to the air quality of the Western Po valley and the urban centre of…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Climate, Emissions and Smoke, Fire Occurrence, Safety
Region(s): International
Keywords: Italy, air quality, biomass, climate change, forest fires, wildfires, PM - particulate matter, air pollution, PM2.5

Studies evaluating the health impacts of climate change, predict that the frequency and intensity of wildfires will increase as climate change creates longer, warmer, and drier seasons. Although respiratory morbidity in the immediate aftermath of wildfires is well documented for…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Hazard and Risk, Safety
Region(s): Alaska, California, Eastern, Great Basin, Hawaii, Northern Rockies, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern, Southwest, National
Keywords: wildfires, health impacts, children, ash, air quality, respiratory health

Fine particulate matter emissions (PM2.5) from landscape biomass fires, both prescribed and wild, pose a significant public health risk, with smoke exposure seasonally impacting human populations through both highly concentrated local plumes, and more dispersed regional haze. A…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Models, Monitoring and Inventory, Prescribed Fire, Safety
Region(s): International
Keywords: AQVx - Air Quality Visualization, Australia, wildfire, transport, radar, exposure, PM - particulate matter, PM2.5

[from the text] Australia is burning. Both New South Wales and Queensland have declared a state of emergency after seeing new record high in property losses during this fire season. Recently, “fires near me” has become Google's most searched words in Australia, with perhaps…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Climate, Emissions and Smoke, Fire Effects, Safety
Region(s): International
Keywords: Australia, climate change, bushfire, public health, PM - particulate matter

Firefighters in the line of duty are exposed to many hazardous air toxics released from burning vegetation and other materials that may cause severe health risks. Current literature does not consider complex mixtures and cumulative impacts of these air toxics when assessing…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Fire Prevention, Prescribed Fire, Safety
Region(s): International
Keywords: Australia, firefighters, cumulative exposure, firefighter health, CO - carbon monoxide, air toxics

Particulate matter (PM) emissions from vegetation and peat fires in Equatorial Asia cause poor regional air quality. Burning is greatest during drought years, resulting in strong inter-annual variability in emissions. We make the first consistent estimate of the emissions, air…
Person:
Year: 2020
Type: Document
Source: FRAMES
Topic(s): Emissions and Smoke, Models, Safety
Region(s): International
Keywords: Equatorial Asia, air quality, health impacts, peat fires, PM - particulate matter, PM2.5, WRF-Chem