Health Impacts of Future Prescribed Fire Smoke: Considerations From an Exposure Scenario in California.

ABSTRACT: In response to increasing wildfire risks, California plans to expand the use of prescribed fire. We characterized the anticipated change in health impacts from exposure to smoke under a future fire-management scenario relative to a historical period (2008-2016). Using dispersion models, we estimated daily fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) emissions from hypothetical future prescribed fires on 500,000-acres classified as high priority. To evaluate health impacts, we calculated excess daily cardiorespiratory emergency department visit rates attributed to all-source PM_2.5, distinguishing the portion of the burden attributed to prescribed fire. The total burden was differentiated by fire type and by smoke strata-specific days to calculate strata-specific burden rates, which

SUBMITTER: Rosenberg A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12181949 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature