Abstract
The extensible Biomass Smoke Validated Events Database is an ongoing, community driven, collection of air pollution events which are known to be caused by vegetation fires such as bushfires (also known as wildfire and wildland fires), or prescribed fuel reduction burns, and wood heaters. This is useful for researchers of health impacts who need to distinguish smoke from vegetation versus other sources. The overarching aim is to study statistical associations between biomass smoke pollution and health. Extreme pollution events may also be caused by dust storms or fossil fuel smog events and so validation is necessary to ensure the events being studied are from biomass. This database can be extended by contribution from other researchers outside the original team. There are several available protocols for adding validated smoke events to the database, to ensure standardization across datasets. Air pollution data can be included, and free software was created for identification of extreme values. Protocols are described for reference material needed as supporting evidence for event days. The utility of this database has previously been demonstrated in analyses of hospitalization and mortality. The database was created using open source software that works across operating systems. The prospect for future extensions to the database is enhanced by the description in this paper, and the availability of these data on the open access Github repository enables easy addition to the database with new data by the research community.
Highlights
Epidemiological Studies of Outdoor Air PollutionFor decades, researchers have studied the public health impacts of ambient outdoor air pollution, especially from the effects of particulate matter (PM) and gaseous pollutants associated with the combustion of coal, petroleum and biomass used for cooking [1]
Fire 2018, 1, 50 effect of outdoor air pollution affected by intermittent extreme smoke events from biomass burning, such as that which occurs in bushfires, or from woodsmoke trapped by inversion layers during winter months as wood is burned for heating [2]
This paper aims to describe how a database was created to enable the collection of evidence linking historical spikes in air pollution with vegetation fire smoke
Summary
Researchers have studied the public health impacts of ambient outdoor air pollution, especially from the effects of particulate matter (PM) and gaseous pollutants associated with the combustion of coal, petroleum and biomass used for cooking [1]. The epidemiological literature of health effects from ambient outdoor air pollution relating to smoke from biomass burning is much more limited than the vast literature on ambient PM from sources such as industrial and transport emissions [3]. Most literature available that focuses on biomass smoke health impacts looks at indoor pollution from cooking [4]. Impacts on the cardiovascular system can take place through a range of processes including the promotion of systemic inflammation, blood coagulation, and impairing blood vessel function and autonomic reactivity [5]. Associations with diabetic, neurological, perinatal and other outcomes are increasingly being characterized [6]
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