Wildland forest fire smoke: health effects and intervention evaluation, Hoopa, California, 1999.

Objectives: To assess the health effects of exposure to smoke from the fifth largest US wildfire of 1999 and to evaluate whether participation in interventions to reduce smoke exposure prevented adverse lower respiratory tract health effects among residents of the Hoopa Valley National Indian Reservation in northwestern California.

Design: Observational study: epidemiologists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention retrospectively reviewed medical records at the local medical center and conducted survey interviews of reservation residents.

Setting: Humboldt County, California.