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Advanced instrumentation for EPA’s mobile air-quality monitoring laboratory
Citation:
Markwiese, James, Ron Waschmann, P. Beedlow, A. Thornhill, AND W. Wallace. Advanced instrumentation for EPA’s mobile air-quality monitoring laboratory. Oregon Governor's Post-Fire Research and Monitoring Group, Corvallis, Oregon, September 30, 2021.
Impact/Purpose:
Short presentation for the Oregon Governor's Post-Fire Research and Monitoring Group Thursday 30Sep21. The presentation covers EPA’s research related to air quality and fire, focusing on mobile air-quality monitoring. Co-authors include Will Wallace (R10), Ron Waschmann, Peter Beedlow and Alan Thornhill (CPHEA).
Description:
Increasing temperature is contributing to extreme events such as wildfire and smoke exposure is a growing health burden in the western United States. While eliminating wildland fires is neither possible nor desirable, there are ways to reduce risks to human populations and vital ecosystem services that target vulnerable landscapes and populations for management actions like fuel reduction and prescribed burning. Regardless of origination, smoke from wildland fires and prescribed burns presents exposure risk and research is needed to guide decisions at this intersection of landscape management and human health. The US Environmental Protection Agency’s, Office of Research and Development, Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment proposes an integrated approach to studying prescribed fire using novel resources and tools will benefit exposed communities during fire events and over the long term. We will be combining the Pacific Ecological Systems Division’s (PESD) mobile air-quality sampling capabilities with EPA Region 10’s sophisticated instrumentation and CPHEA’s toxicological depth and expertise with electronic health records and syndromic surveillance to present a unique means by which to understand and compare the health impacts of wildland and prescribed fire smoke exposure. This talk will focus primarily on the capabilities of PESD to respond to fires in the Pacific Northwest and collect the information needed to examine impacts in vulnerable populations and patient groups as communities grapple with high chronic disease burden as well as those disproportionately impacted by social determinants of health may have elevated health risks due to smoke exposure.