Reno ranks among worst U.S cities for air quality, UNR scientists studying health effects

USA – RENO, Nev. (News 4 & Fox 11) — UNR researchers are working to study the health effects of a relatively recent phenomenon — the extended periods of hazardous air quality in Reno-Sparks caused by smoke from nearby wildfires.

The smoke has blanketed the Truckee Meadows so regularly in recent summers that Reno now has the 12th worst air quality when it comes to short-term particle pollution, according to the American Lung Association.

Unlike many other cities high on the list, it is not because of urban pollution such as coal burning, power plants and vehicle emissions. Rather, it’s because of the harmful pollutants from wildfire smoke.

Dr. Matthew Strickland and two Ph.D. students are setting out to study the health effects and try to determine whether certain types of fires and fuels harm air quality different than others.

“Some of them are really close to town, they’re brush fires and things like that. Others are in Lake Tahoe, they’re forest fires. (What we’re trying to do is) understand how different fires originating from different parts of the western United States might affect health differently,” he told News 4-Fox 11.

“The fuel that is burned is different. From the Ponderosa Pine forests in Lake Tahoe, that fuel is different than scrub brush fires around town. And particulate matter that’s released can be different than those two different kinds of fires.

So (we’re) trying to understand if one type of pollution or one type of wildfire smoke is more harmful than another.

Strickland said his team is creating a historical database of wildfires and prescribed burns in Nevada and California over the last 15 years and comparing them to patient records from Renown Health to determine the associations between smoke and health.

“On days where the smoke from wildfires goes up, do we see more emergency department visits for asthma or cardiovascular disease or other things like that?”

Strickland said they hope to complete this research in the next two to three years. The goal, he said, is to help land managers and public health officials better understand the health effects of wildfire smoke.