Researchers find evidence of a cosmic impact that caused destruction of one of the world’s earliest human settlements.
In recent years, wildfires have grabbed the spotlight for their size, severity, and frequency, with scenes of destruction in California last fall and then Australia just weeks ago dominating international news. Extremely high ambient temperatures, low soil moisture, decreased rainfall, and increased solar radiation have made the problem worse in certain areas.
While recent rains make the chance of local wildfires lower than average in East Tennessee, fire season is in full swing, bringing thick, acrid smoke to those unfortunate to be near large blazes in other areas of the world.
Joshua Fu, the John D. Tickle Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Tickle College of Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has completed a collaborative study with researchers at Emory University and the University of Nevada to understand how smoke particles from wildfires can impact human health. The study was the first to incorporate ground measurements, regional chemical transport models, and remote sensing data to show how far particulate matter in the smoke spread and what that meant for people living downwind.
“When looking at the cost of wildfires, you also have to account for the cost to human health,” Fu said. “Although there is consistent evidence for the associations between wildfire events and disease, there have been very few studies using the method on the human health impact of wildfire smoke until now.”
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