The smoke from fires that blaze through the wildland-urban interface (WUI) has far greater health impacts than smoke from wildfires in remote areas, new research finds.
The smoke from fires that blaze through the wildland-urban interface (WUI) has far greater health impacts than smoke from wildfires in remote areas, new research finds.
The study, published this week in Science Advances, estimates that emissions from WUI fires are proportionately about three times more likely to lead to annual premature deaths than emissions from wildfires in general. This is because the fires, and their associated emissions, are far closer to populated areas.
The work was conducted by an international team of researchers, led by scientists at the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR). The study drew on a database of WUI fires and advanced computer modeling techniques.
“Even though the emissions of WUI fires are relatively small globally, the health impacts are proportionately large because they’re closer to human populations,” said NSF NCAR scientist Wenfu Tang, the lead author. “Pollutants emitted by WUI fires such as particulate matter and the precursors to ozone are more harmful because they’re not dispersing across hundreds or thousands of miles.”
Read more at National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Photo Credit: FireEditorHomiee via Wikimedia Commons
