An aerial view shows neighborhoods enshrouded in smoke as the Bobcat Fire advanced toward foothill cities on Sept. 13, 2020, in Monrovia, California.
(David McNew/Getty Images)
- The research looked at hospitalizations from 1999 to 2012.
- The numbers were correlated with data from wildfires, winds and smoke plumes.
- Wildfire smoke is made of microscopic particles that cause health problems.
Smoke from wildfires is as much as 10 times more hazardous to humans than similar pollution from other sources, according to a new study.
The research, published Friday in the journal Nature Communications, counted the number of people hospitalized in Southern California from 1999 to 2012, and compared it to data from wildfires, Santa Ana winds and smoke plumes.
The results showed that hospitalizations increased by up to 10 times when wildfire smoke was polluting the air.
(MORE: Spring Wildfire Danger Outlook Is Bad News For Florida, Southern Plains, Southwest)
Wildfire smoke is made up mainly of microscopic airborne particles known as PM2.5, which are 30 times smaller than a strand of hair. They can penetrate the human respiratory tract and enter the bloodstream, causing a range of health problems. The particles can aggravate chronic heart and lung disease, increase the risk of stroke and heart attack, damage vital organs and lead to premature death. Even healthy people aren’t immune.
Car exhaust and emissions from factories and power plants also cause similar particle pollution, but wildfire smoke was found to be more dangerous. It’s not yet clear why, the researchers said, but the study indicates that the source of pollution may need to be taken into account when issuing air quality warnings.
“There is a daily threshold for the amount of PM2.5 in the air that is considered acceptable by the county and the Environmental Protection Agency,” study coauthor Rosana Aguilera, a postdoctoral scholar at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said in a news release. “The problem with this standard is that it doesn’t account for different sources of emission of PM2.5.”
Volunteer Elizabeth Stoltz of Heisson waters the Fort Vancouver Garden in Vancouver, Wash., Friday, Sept. 11, 2020. Stolz said things were extra dried out because of the wind and smoke. “The wind sucks the life out of everything,” she said. Stoltz said she is still not under evacuation from the Big Hollow Fire but her family made a plan in case it gets to that point. Clark County entered hazardous air-quality territory late Thursday as wildfire smoke traveling from other areas enveloped Southwest Washington.
(Alisha Jucevic/The Columbian via AP)
The study comes after a historic wildfire season on the West Coast that pushed air quality off the charts in some places and exposed millions of people to days on end of toxic smoke.
It also comes at the same time experts predict that wildfires will continue to increase in California and other areas, as climate change leads to more intense fire weather.
“As conditions in Southern California become hotter and drier, we expect to see increased wildfire activity,” Tom Corringham, another coauthor and a researcher who studies climate and atmospheric science at Scripps. “This study demonstrates that the harm due to wildfire smoke may be greater than previously thought, bolstering the argument for early wildfire detection systems and efforts to mitigate climate change.”
The link between wildfire smoke and health is well-established, but the research puts it in a human context.
“We’re pretty aware of the physical costs of wildfire, in terms of firefighting costs and damage to property,” Corringham told NPR. “But there’s been a lot of work that has shown that the health impacts due to wildfire smoke are on the same order of magnitude, or possibly even greater, than the direct physical cost.”
While the study area was between San Diego and Santa Barbara, the researchers said the results shed light on the hazards of wildfire pollution everywhere.
“We’ve been really successful in reducing air pollution across the country by improving standards for automobiles, trucks and power plants,” Corringham told the Mercury-News. “The trend has been a decrease in air pollution. But these wildfires are getting worse.”
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
Read More:Wildfire Smoke 10 Times More Hazardous Than Other Air Pollution, According to New Study | The Weather Channel – Articles
2021-03-06 22:17:23
