Socio-demographic and health vulnerability in prescribed-burn exposed versus unexposed counties near the National Forest System.

ABSTRACT: Prescribed fire is an increasingly important tool in restoring ecological conditions and reducing uncontrolled wildfire. Prescribed burn techniques could reduce public health impacts associated with wildfire smoke exposure. However, there have been few assessments of the health impacts of prescribed burning, and potential vulnerabilities among populations exposed to smoke from prescribed fires. Our study area focused on counties in and near U.S. National Forests - a set of lands distributed across the U.S. In county-level analyses, we compared the sociodemographic and health characteristics of areas that were exposed with those that were not exposed to prescribe burns during the years 2010-2019 on a national level and within three regions. In addition, using spatial error regression models

SUBMITTER: Kondo MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9063456 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature