Abstract
Short-term exposure to fire smoke, especially particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5), is associated with adverse health effects. In order to quantify the impact of prescribed burning on human health, a general health impact function was used with exposure fields of PM2.5 from prescribed burning in Georgia, USA, during the burn seasons of 2015 to 2018, generated using a data fusion method. A method was developed to identify the days and areas when and where the prescribed burning had a major impact on local air quality to explore the relationship between prescribed burning and acute health effects. The results showed strong spatial and temporal variations in prescribed burning impacts. April 2018 exhibited a larger estimated daily health impact with more burned areas compared to Aprils in previous years, likely due to an extended burn season resulting from the need to burn more areas in Georgia. There were an estimated 145 emergency room (ER) visits in Georgia for asthma due to prescribed burning impacts in 2015 during the burn season, and this number increased by about 18% in 2018. Although southwestern, central, and east-central Georgia had large fire impacts on air quality, the absolute number of estimated ER asthma visits resulting from burn impacts was small in these regions compared to metropolitan areas where the population density is higher. Metro-Atlanta had the largest estimated prescribed burn-related asthma ER visits in Georgia, with an average of about 66 during the reporting years.
Highlights
The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies outdoor air pollution as carcinogenic to humans [1]
Particulate matter (PM) is a major component of air pollution that comes from both primary and secondary sources [2]
Average PM2.5 concentrations over the four-year period from 2015 to 2018 during the prescribed burning season showed that the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) simulations of total PM2.5 concentrations were biased low burning season showed that the CMAQ simulations of total PM2.5 concentrations were biased low compared to the observations (Table 1)
Summary
The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies outdoor air pollution as carcinogenic to humans [1]. Particulate matter (PM) is a major component of air pollution that comes from both primary (e.g., dust, biomass burning, coal-fired power plant) and secondary (e.g., reactions of chemicals emitted from primary sources) sources [2]. Generally referred to as “smoke”, can reduce visibility and have adverse health effects. Wildfires do endanger lives and property, and threaten public health with their large emissions of PM2.5 and other pollutants. Prescribed burning, another type of biomass burning, is a land management practice used to improve native vegetation and wildlife habitat, control insects and disease, and reduce wildfire risk [9].
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