Modeling Wildland Fire-Specific PM Concentrations for Uncertainty-Aware Health Impact Assessments.

Wildland fire is a major emission source of fine particulate matter (PM), which has serious adverse health effects. Most fire-related health studies have estimated human exposures to PM using ground observations, which have limited spatial/temporal coverage and could not separate PM emanating from wildland fires from other sources. The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model has the potential to fill the gaps left by ground observations and estimate wildland fire-specific PM concentrations, although the issues around systematic bias in CMAQ models remain to be resolved.

Geographic Information Science and the Analysis of Place and Health.

The representation of place is a key theoretical advancement that Geographic Information Science can offer to improve the understanding of environmental determinants of health, but developing robust computational representations of place requires a substantial departure from conventional notions of geographic representation in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Unlike conventional GIS representations based on either objects or locations, we suggest place representation should incorporate dynamic subjective, experiential, and relational aspects of place, as the influence of place on health behavior concerns not only the features that can be objectively observed at a particular location but also the environmental perceptions of the individual, as molded by biological, social, and experiential characteristics. In addition, assessments of environmental exposures on health outcomes should focus on individuals' time-activity patterns and microenvironment profiles, which form a potentially unique personalized exposure environment for each individual.

Spatial Methods to Enhance Public Health Surveillance and Resource Deployment in the Opioid Epidemic.

Objectives: To improve public health surveillance and response by using spatial optimization.

Methods: We identified cases of suspected nonfatal opioid overdose events in which naloxone was administered from April 2013 through December 2016 treated by the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Bureau of Emergency Medical Services. We used spatial modeling to identify areas hardest hit to spatially optimize naloxone distribution among pharmacies in Pittsburgh.