You are here:
Mutagenicity and Lung Toxicity of Smoldering vs. Flaming Emissions from Various Biomass Fuels: Implications for Health Effects from Wildland Fires
Citation:
Kim, Y., S. Warren, Todd Krantz, C. King, R. Jaskot, W. Preston, BJ George, M. Hays, M. Landis, M. Higuchi, D. DeMarini, AND Ian Gilmour. Mutagenicity and Lung Toxicity of Smoldering vs. Flaming Emissions from Various Biomass Fuels: Implications for Health Effects from Wildland Fires. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), Research Triangle Park, NC, 126(1):1, (2018). https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP2200
Impact/Purpose:
Each year tens of millions of people globally experience destructive wildland fires and resulting health impacts from smoke exposure, and more frequent and larger wildfires are predicted for the future (Reid et al.2016; Weinhold 2011; Westerling et al. 2006). Besides the damage caused by fire itself, smoke emitted from these fires is a serious public health concern. Wildland fire and biomass smoke is now recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a probable human lung carcinogen (IARC 2010), and health risks due to short- and long-term exposure to wildland fire smoke are important for firefighters as well as for people living in communities near or downwind of wildland fires (Adetona et al. 2016).
Description:
BACKGROUND: The increasing size and frequency of wildland fires are leading to greater potential for cardiopulmonary disease and cancer in exposed populations, however little is known on how the types of fuel and combustion phases affect these adverse outcomes. OBJECTIVES: We evaluated the mutagenicity and lung toxicity of particulate matter (PM) from flaming versus smoldering phases of five biomass fuels, and compared results by equal mass or emission factors (EFs) derived from amount of fuel consumed. METHODS: A quartz-tube furnace coupled to a multi-stage cryo-trap was employed to collect smoke condensate from flaming and smoldering combustion of red oak, peat, pine needles, pine, and eucalyptus. Samples were analyzed chemically and assessed for acute lung toxicity in mice and mutagenicity in Salmonella. RESULTS: The average combustion efficiency was 73 and 98% for the smoldering and flaming phases, respectively. On an equal mass basis, PM from eucalyptus and peat burned under flaming conditions induced significant lung toxicity potencies (neutrophil/mass of PM) compared to smoldering PM, whereas high levels of mutagenicity potencies were observed for flaming pine and peat PM compared to smoldering PM. When effects were adjusted for EF, the smoldering eucalyptus PM had the highest lung toxicity EF (neutrophil/mass of fuel burned), whereas smoldering pine and pine needles had the highest mutagenicity EF. These latter values were approximately 5, 10, and 30 times greater than those reported for open burning of agricultural plastic, wood-burning cookstoves, and some municipal waste combustors, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: PM from different fuels and combustion phases have appreciable differences in lung toxic and mutagenic potency, and on a mass basis flaming samples are more active, whereas smoldering samples have greater effect when EFs are taken into account. Knowledge of the differential toxicity of biomass emissions will contribute to more accurate hazard assessment of biomass smoke exposures.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Mutagenicity and Lung Toxicity of Smoldering vs. Flaming Emissions from Various Biomass Fuels: Implications for Health Effects from Wildland Fires