US EPA Office of Research and Development’s Wildland Fire-Related Research: Finding Solutions to Protect Public Health
Citation:
Cascio, W. US EPA Office of Research and Development’s Wildland Fire-Related Research: Finding Solutions to Protect Public Health. EPA Webinar for APHA State Affiliates on Wildland Fires and Public Health, Durham, North Carolina, December 03, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
Wildland fire research within ORD focuses on: (1) exploring new ways to integrate social and natural science perspectives to reduce risks from wildland fires; (2) advancing measurement and predictive tools and models to estimate air quality impacts; (3) investigating opportunities to better understand, manage, and communicate public health risks. The expected value of this presentation and its impact is expected to be an increased awareness among public health officials in the US states of the active research ORD is doing to provide new information that aims to help them carry out their mission of protecting the public from wildfire emissions, and to stimulate opportunity for cooperation and collaboration.
Description:
The presentation will broadly describe ORD research dedicated to the study of wildfires their emissions, impacts on air quality and health effects. However, the principle focus of the presentation will be to describe the purpose and utility of the Smoke Sense smart phone app. There is a gap between the recommended actions and what we think individuals do to protect their health during a wildfire. The citizen science project Smoke Sense promotes issue engagement and education that aims to: foster personal connection between changes in the environment and our health; raise personal awareness about the salience of changing behavior during smoke; increase knowledge-base about health effects of smoke and risk communication. A-E researchers developed the mobile application available for Android and iPhone called Smoke Sense App for people impacted by wildfire smoke to: get information on local air quality; learn about ways to protect their health from smoke exposure; describe how A-E is working with Regions to solicit potential State/local partners to pilot use of this app.