Advancing the community health vulnerability index for wildland fire smoke exposure.

Wildland fire smoke risks are not uniformly distributed across people and places, and the most vulnerable communities are often disproportionately impacted. This study develops a county level community health vulnerability index (CHVI) for the Contiguous United States (CONUS) using three major vulnerability components: adaptive capacity, sensitivity, and exposure at the national and regional level. We first calculated sensitivity and adaptive capacity sub-indices using nine sensitivity and twenty adaptive capacity variables.

Wildfire Smoke Monitoring for Agricultural Safety and Health in Rural Washington.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the performance of a low-cost smoke sampling platform relative to environmental and occupational exposure monitoring methods in a rural agricultural region in central Washington state.

Methods: We co-located the Thingy AQ sampling platform alongside cyclone-based gravimetric samplers, a nephelometer, and an environmental beta attenuation mass (E-BAM) monitor during August and September of 2020. Ambient particulate matter concentrations were collected during a smoke and non-smoke period and measurements were compared across sampling methods.

Assessing the impact of aircraft arrival on ambient ultrafine particle number concentrations in near-airport communities in Boston, Massachusetts.

Aircraft emissions contribute to overall ambient air pollution, including ultrafine particle (UFP) concentrations. However, accurately ascertaining aviation contributions to UFP is challenging due to high spatiotemporal variability along with intermittent aviation emissions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of arrival aircraft on particle number concentration (PNC), a proxy for UFP, across six study sites 3-17 km from a major arrival aircraft flight path into Boston Logan International Airport by utilizing real-time aircraft activity and meteorological data.

Wildfire, Smoke Exposure, Human Health, and Environmental Justice Need to be Integrated into Forest Restoration and Management.

Purpose Of Review: Increasing wildfire size and severity across the western United States has created an environmental and social crisis that must be approached from a transdisciplinary perspective. Climate change and more than a century of fire exclusion and wildfire suppression have led to contemporary wildfires with more severe environmental impacts and human smoke exposure. Wildfires increase smoke exposure for broad swaths of the US population, though outdoor workers and socially disadvantaged groups with limited adaptive capacity can be disproportionally exposed.

A Comparative Assessment of Cooling Center Preparedness across Twenty-Five U.S. Cities.

Cooling centers have played a significant role in reducing the risks of adverse health impacts of extreme heat exposure. However, there have been no comparative studies investigating cooling center preparedness in terms of population coverage, location efficiency, and population coverage disparities among different subpopulation groups. Using a catchment area method with a 0.

Reporting Results of a Community-Based In-Home Exposure Monitoring Study: Developing Methods and Materials.

Background: Reporting exposure results to study participants provides information that can ideally be used to decrease harmful exposures, improve health, and prevent disease. In reality, we often do not fully understand how an environmental exposure contributes to disease. This is the case when reporting back indoor air exposures in the absence of regulations.

Natural gas leaks and tree death: A first-look case-control study of urban trees in Chelsea, MA USA.

Urban vegetation is associated with numerous public health benefits; however, urban tree canopies may be threatened by fugitive methane exposure from leaky natural gas distribution systems. Despite anecdotal evidence of the harmful impacts of natural gas leaks on urban tree decline, the relationship between soil gas exposure and tree health has not been formally quantified in an urban setting. We conducted a case-control study to compare soil natural gas exposure in sidewalk tree pits of healthy and dead or dying trees in Chelsea, Massachusetts, during summer 2019.

A Mixed Methods Evaluation of Sharing Air Pollution Results with Study Participants via Report-Back Communication.

We implemented a concurrent triangulation mixed-methods evaluation of an air pollution data report-back to study participants in Chelsea, Massachusetts. We aimed to determine whether the report-back was effective in the following three ways: engagement, understandability, and actionability for the participants. We also evaluated participants' valuation of the report-back information and process.