Ambient air quality and health impacts of PM_2.5 from US residential wood combustion.

ABSTRACT: Residential wood combustion (RWC) is a primary heating fuel in just 2% of US homes. However, the 2023 release of the US Environmental Protection Agency's National Emissions Inventory (NEI) found that RWC contributes ~28% of total wintertime fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) emissions, suggesting that ambient PM_2.5 concentrations could be substantially reduced if RWC were curtailed. Despite its contribution to PM_2.5 emissions, an assessment of the air quality, health, and distributional impacts of RWC using the updated NEI has not been performed. Here, we use a high-resolution (4 kilometers) air quality model and the updated NEI to evaluate wintertime RWC impacts over the contiguous United States. We find that RWC contributes 2.43 micrograms per cubic meter (2

SUBMITTER: Shlipak KK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12829573 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature