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Wildfire Health and Economic Impacts Case Study###
Citation:
Rappold, A. Wildfire Health and Economic Impacts Case Study###. Presented at Work in Progress Meeting-HSF, Chapel Hill, NC, May 30, 2012.
Impact/Purpose:
Work in Progress to colleagues at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Chapel Hill, NC 27599
Description:
Since 2008 eastern North Carolina experienced 6 major wildfires, far exceeding the historic 50 year expected rate of return. Initiated by the lighting strikes, these fires spread across multiple feet deep, dry and extremely vulnerable peat bogs. The fires produced massive amounts of ground level smoke exposing population to hazardous levels of air pollutants. In addition to substantial impact on health these fires cost up words of $62M in direct suppression cost and potential loss of revenue particularly for local tourism industry. In this series of studies we examine the impact of exposures on cardio-respiratory health outcomes, examine the role of community based measures of health in susceptibility to adverse outcomes following exposure, and evaluate potential to mitigate cost with intervention.