Grantee Research Project Results

Integrated Communication and Intervention Strategies to Reduce Exposure to Prescribed Wildland Fire Emissions in Schools, Schoolchildren and Communities

EPA Grant Number: R840246
Title: Integrated Communication and Intervention Strategies to Reduce Exposure to Prescribed Wildland Fire Emissions in Schools, Schoolchildren and Communities
Investigators: Russell, Armistead G. , Odman, Mehmet Talat , Hull, Rebecca Watts , Ng, Nga Lee , Vaidyanathan, Ambarish
Current Investigators: Russell, Armistead G. , Odman, Mehmet Talat , Ng, Nga Lee , Vaidyanathan, Ambarish
Institution: Georgia Institute of Technology , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
EPA Project Officer: Chung, Serena
Project Period: September 1, 2021 through May 8, 2025
Project Amount: $1,000,000
RFA: Interventions and Communication Strategies to Reduce Health Risks of Wildland Fire Smoke Exposures (2021) RFA Text |  Recipients Lists
Research Category: Watersheds , Endocrine Disruptors , Environmental Engineering , Air Quality and Air Toxics , Wildfires

Objective:

Prescribed burning air pollution forecasting, on-site low- cost monitoring and air cleaning, and coordinated communication approaches will be employed and assessed for their effectiveness at reducing exposures of schoolchildren in southern Georgia and Alabama to elevated levels of PM2.5 and other pollutants.  This will involve addressing three hypotheses: 1) An integrated strategy containing both interventions and communications can reduce wildland fire pollution exposure in children and youth; 2) Targeted intervention, e.g., classroom-based air cleaning, can be used to effectively reduce exposures of school community members, including students, to wildland fire burn emissions; and 3) Wildland fire impact forecasting can be used to reduce exposures, both by adjusting the timing of burn activities that would lead to large population exposures and by alerting and providing guidance to potentially impacted areas in advance. 

Approach:

An operational prescribed burn impacting forecasting will be advanced to provide enhanced information to schools for use in communicating potential high pollution events from prescribed burns.  Continuing to work with air quality and forest managers, the system will also provide information to limit the location and times of burns to reduce impacts to schools.  Deployment of low-cost monitoring and air purifiers in the schools will be used to improve classroom air quality on high pollution days. Observations from the low-cost monitors will be fed back into the forecasting system to improve future forecasts.  Communication strategies will include 1) Enhancing the science curriculum to increase teaching staff and student understanding of air pollution health risks and mitigation strategies; 2) School-wide communication and support with data interpretation in association with monitor and air purifier use; and 3) Household communication through project-supported school communications and student engagement with family members, and 4) at a broader scale in collaboration with public health officials and air quality and land management stakeholders in the region. Teachers will be surveyed to assess the benefits of the interventions.

Expected Results:

This study will both lead to reduce exposures of schoolchildren and associated communities and provide an assessment of approaches to reduce exposures to air pollution from wildland fires.  A further benefit is the advancement of an operational prescribed fire impact forecasting system.  The proposed approach is readily scalable to other classrooms, schools and communities such that a successful demonstration can have broad application and benefits. 

Supplemental Keywords:

 Wildland fire, Intervention, Communication, Air Quality, Pollution Control, Forecasting.

Progress and Final Reports:

2022 Progress Report

2023 Progress Report

2024 Progress Report

Final