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Impacts of wildfire smoke plumes on regional air quality
Citation:
Larsen, a., B. Reich, M. Ruminski, AND A. Rappold. Impacts of wildfire smoke plumes on regional air quality. Intl Society for Environmental Epidemiology, Rome, ITALY, September 01 - 04, 2016.
Impact/Purpose:
We examine the impact of fire smoke on regional air quality between 2006 and 2013 in continental US.
Description:
Background: Recent trends in increased frequency and severity of large fires necessitate an improved understanding of smoke plume impacts on regional-scale air quality and public health. Objective: We examine the impact of fire smoke on regional air quality between 2006 and 2013 in continental US.Methods: We characterize daily regional air quality using data from environmental monitoring sites for ozone, fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and constituents of PM2.5. Satellite image analysis from the NOAA Hazard Mapping System was used to determine days on which visible smoke plumes are detected in the vertical column of each monitoring site. With a two-stage approach we account for within-site and between-site variations in the estimated change in pollutant concentrations on smoke plume days relative to clear days. In the first stage, we estimate monitor-specific plume day impacts controlling for season and temperature. At the second stage we combine monitor-specific plume day effects with a spatial hierarchical model and estimate a pooled nationwide average effect. We examine geographical variation in the impacts.Results: Plume days were associated with an average increase of 8.1±0.2% in ozone and 25.7±0.4% in PM2.5 concentrations but the magnitude of these impacts varied by geographical location of monitoring sites. In the Southeast we observed high impacts on both pollutants while in the mountainous west mostly PM2.5 effects were observed. Plume days had high impacts on ozone in densely populated areas including parts of northeast and midwest. All PM2.5 species were significantly increased as well. Unhealthy air quality days for ozone and PM2.5 were respectively 3.3 and 2.5 times more likely to occur on plume days then on clear days.Conclusions: Significant smoke-producing fires have a substantial effect on regional air quality and account for a disproportionate number of days with unhealthy levels of pollution.