Smoke from wildfires is a growing health risk across the US. Understanding the spatial and temporal patterns of such exposure and its population health impacts requires separating smoke-driven pollutants from non-smoke pollutants and a long time series to quantify patterns and measure health impacts. We develop a parsimonious and accurate machine learning model of daily wildfire-driven PM concentrations using a combination of ground, satellite, and reanalysis data sources that are easy to update. We apply our model across the contiguous US from 2006 to 2020, generating daily estimates of smoke PM over a 10 km-by-10 km grid and use these data to characterize levels and trends in smoke PM. Smoke contributions to daily PM concentrations have increased by up to 5 μg/m in the Western US over the last decade, reversing decades of policy-driven improvements in overall air quality, with concentrations growing fastest for higher income populations and predominantly Hispanic populations. The number of people in locations with at least 1 day of smoke PM above 100 μg/m per year has increased 27-fold over the last decade, including nearly 25 million people in 2020 alone. Our data set can bolster efforts to comprehensively understand the drivers and societal impacts of trends and extremes in wildfire smoke.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c02934 | DOI Listing |
Science
January 2025
Valério D. Pillar is at the Laboratório de Ecologia Quantitativa, Departamento de Ecologia/Centro de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Over half of Earth's land surface is covered with fire-prone vegetation, with grassy ecosystems-such as grasslands, savannas, woodlands, and shrublands-being the most extensive. In the context of the climate crisis, scientists worldwide are exploring adaptation measures to address the heightened fire risk driven by more frequent extreme climatic conditions such as droughts and heatwaves, as well as by non-native plant invasions that increased fuel loads and altered fire regimes. Although fire is intrinsic to grassy ecosystems, rising exposure to wildfire smoke harms human health and the environment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Public Health
January 2025
Heluna Health, City of Industry, City of Industry, CA, USA.
Background: Prescribed burning is an important fuel management tool to prevent severe wildfires. There is a pressing need to increase its application to reduce dry fuels in the western United States, a region that has experienced many damaging wildfires. Public support for this practice is tempered by concern around smoke impacts and escape risks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPaediatr Perinat Epidemiol
January 2025
Center for Climate and Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
J Agric Food Chem
January 2025
The Australian Wine Research Institute, P.O. Box 46, Glenside (Adelaide), SA 5065, Australia.
Winegrapes exposed to environmental wildfire smoke during ripening can be identified through analysis of volatile phenols and phenolic glycosides. While elevated concentrations of these smoke marker compounds in grapes have been shown to be predictive of composition and smoke flavor in young wines, recent research has demonstrated that not every wine produced from smoke-exposed grapes will inevitably have discernible smoke flavor when assessed as young wine 6 weeks after bottling. This is supported by anecdotal reports from wine producers that wines that do not appear noticeably smoky when young become noticeably smoky during aging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSensors (Basel)
December 2024
US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development, Research Triangle Park, Durham, NC 27711, USA.
In the original publication [...
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