Seminar on Fires, Smoke, and Health: Impacts and Prevention


Seminar on Fires, Smoke, and Health: Impacts and Prevention


19 February 2012, Vancouver, Canada


As climate change increases forest fires, smoke forecasting could help protect public health

Satellite images, air quality measurements and smoke forecasting models are useful tools to help individuals and public health professionals prepare for smoke episodes in areas at risk from forest fire smoke, according to University of British Columbia researcher Michael Brauer.

Brauer shares his insight into the health impacts of smoke exposure and suggests effective strategies to mitigate them today at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada.

N.B. Brauer is participating in an AAAS press briefing at 2pm PST, Feb. 18 at the Vancouver Convention Centre Room 223-224. He is available for telephone interviews after the press briefing. Please contact Katherine Came at 604.219.0185.

Brauer’s seminar, titled Fires, Smoke, and Health: Impacts and Prevention, is at 8:30-11:30 a.m. Feb. 19 in Room 109 at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

Vegetation fire frequency and intensity are expected to increase as a consequence of climate change, according to Brauer. While there are other potentially harmful pollutants in fire smoke, increases in fine particulate matter are of most concern. Particulate matter can remain suspended in the air for days, or even weeks, affecting air quality across large regions. These particles are fine enough to easily penetrate indoor environments.

Brauer and colleagues at the BC Centre for Disease Control have conducted a number of studies to demonstrate that particles from forest fires pose an increased risk to public health, causing a wide range of respiratory health effects . Their current work, with graduate student Jiayun Yao, evaluates the ability of smoke forecasting tools such as the BlueSky Western Canada Wildfire Smoke Forecasting System to predict health impacts.

“Given the health effects related to fire smoke exposure and the likelihood of increased fire smoke episodes resulting from climate change, strategies to mitigate the public health impacts are required,” says Brauer, a professor in the School of Population and Public Health at UBC and co-lead of the School’s Occupational and Environmental Health theme. “Smoke forecasting tools can help individuals and public health professionals prepare for smoke episodes.”

He suggests that at risk communities establish clean air shelters, and that individuals use properly-sized HEPA-filter air cleaners or air conditioners in their homes.

“Individuals with pre-existing heart and lung conditions need to limit their exposure to fire smoke and to also ensure they have adequate supplies of reliever medications when the fire season begins.”

Visithttp://www.aaas.ubc.ca and follow @ubcnews and @ubcaplaceofmind on Twitter for the latest news on research released at the 2012 AAAS Annual Meeting. For more information on the AAAS, visithttp://www.aaas.org.

Contact:

Prof. Michael Brauer
School of Population and Public Health
Tel: 604-822-9858
Email:Michael.brauer@ubc.ca

 

Katherine Came (media relations)
School of Population and Public Health
Tel: 604-822-0530
Cell: 604-219-0185
Email:Katherine.came@ubc.ca

 

As climate change increases forest fires, smoke forecasting could help protect public health 

18 February 2012

Satellite images, air quality measurements and smoke forecasting models are useful tools to help individuals and public health professionals prepare for smoke episodes in areas at risk from forest fire smoke, according to University of British Columbia researcher Michael Brauer.

Brauer shares his insight into the health impacts of smoke exposure and suggests effective strategies to mitigate them today at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada.

N.B. Brauer is participating in an AAAS press briefing at 2pm PST, Feb. 18 at the Vancouver Convention Centre Room 223-224. He is available for telephone interviews after the press briefing. Please contact Katherine Came at 604.219.0185.

Brauer’s seminar, titled Fires, Smoke, and Health: Impacts and Prevention, is at 8:30-11:30 a.m. Feb. 19 in Room 109 at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

Vegetation fire frequency and intensity are expected to increase as a consequence of climate change, according to Brauer. While there are other potentially harmful pollutants in fire smoke, increases in fine particulate matter are of most concern. Particulate matter can remain suspended in the air for days, or even weeks, affecting air quality across large regions. These particles are fine enough to easily penetrate indoor environments.

Brauer and colleagues at the BC Centre for Disease Control have conducted a number of studies to demonstrate that particles from forest fires pose an increased risk to public health, causing a wide range of respiratory health effects . Their current work, with graduate student Jiayun Yao, evaluates the ability of smoke forecasting tools such as the BlueSky Western Canada Wildfire Smoke Forecasting System to predict health impacts.

“Given the health effects related to fire smoke exposure and the likelihood of increased fire smoke episodes resulting from climate change, strategies to mitigate the public health impacts are required,” says Brauer, a professor in the School of Population and Public Health at UBC and co-lead of the School’s Occupational and Environmental Health theme. “Smoke forecasting tools can help individuals and public health professionals prepare for smoke episodes.”

He suggests that at risk communities establish clean air shelters, and that individuals use properly-sized HEPA-filter air cleaners or air conditioners in their homes. 

“Individuals with pre-existing heart and lung conditions need to limit their exposure to fire smoke and to also ensure they have adequate supplies of reliever medications when the fire season begins.”

Sources:University of British Columbia and

http://www.sciencecodex.com/as_climate_change_increases_forest_fires_smoke_forecasting_could_help_protect_public_health-86368

 

Landscape fire smoke contributes to hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide, new research suggests

18 February 2012

Worldwide, smoke from landscape fires contributed to an average of 339,000 deaths per year between 1997 and 2006, according to new research published in Environmental Health Perspectives and released today during the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia were the hardest hit by fire-smoke deaths, with an estimated annual average of 157,000 and 110,000 deaths, respectively, attributable to landscape fire smoke exposure, said researcher Fay Johnston, who represented a global team at the 2012 AAAS Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada.

“It’s time to look at deforestation impacts on fires, which in turn affect human health,” said Johnston, a research fellow at the Menzies Research Institute, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia.

Johnston and her co-authors specifically assessed the health impacts of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers, an important byproduct of landscape fire smoke. First, they looked at satellite data to gather information on areas burned each year during the study period; particulate matter exposures were estimated using a chemical transport model, satellite-based observations, and other data. They applied an accepted World Health Organization framework for determining annual mortality in different regions, and they used results from previous research on the health effects of smoke-related particulate matter to estimate deaths attributable to fire smoke. They further calculated annual mortality during a La Niña period, and an El Niño period. Worldwide, deaths from fire smoke during those periods were estimated at 262,000 and 532,000, respectively, compared with an estimated 10-year global average of 339,000 deaths.

“Fire emissions are an important contributor to global mortality,” the EHP article concludes. “Adverse health outcomes associated with landscape fire smoke could be substantially reduced by curtailing burning of tropical rainforests, which rarely burn naturally. The large estimated influence of El Niño suggests a relationship between climate and the burden of mortality attributable to landscape fire smoke.” 

Johnston is participating in a special AAAS Annual Meeting seminar at 8:30 am Pacific Standard Time on Sunday, February 19. The session is titled “Climate Change in Northern Latitudes—Forest Fires in Canada: Impacts of Climate Change and Fire Smoke.”

She also agreed to take part in a related news briefing at 2:00 pm PST on Saturday, February 18, webcast live viahttp://www..org/aaasnewsroom. She was joined by fellow panelists Michael Brauer of the University of British Columbia; Mike Flannigan of the University of Alberta; Gordon McBean of the University of Western Ontario; and Douglas Woolford of Wilfrid Laurier University.

The panelists noted that fire scorches 350 to 400 million hectares of land every year—an area larger than the size of India—emitting greenhouse gases as well as fine particulate matter that can be harmful to people and animals. As global warming continues, vegetation becomes dryer, lightning strikes more frequently, and fire seasons change.

Woolford’s research reveals, for example, that the fire season now begins earlier and ends later in Alberta than it did in 1960. Climate change affects the frequency of extreme weather, too, causing unusually warm events to happen more often.

Also during the AAAS news briefing, Mike Flannigan released new predictions of future global fire severity, based on three specific climate-change scenarios. He further discussed concerns about the increasing number of peat fires, which release significant amounts of greenhouse gases as well as high levels of mercury.

Brauer discussed approaches for estimating population exposure to forest fire smoke and the evaluation of a smoke forecasting tool for public health preparedness. He summarized studies of health impacts of fire smoke exposure in Canada and evaluated the effectiveness of room air cleaners in reducing exposure to fire smoke.

Sources:American Association for the Advancement of Science and

http://www.sciencecodex.com/landscape_fire_smoke_contributes_to_hundreds_of_thousands_of_deaths_worldwide_new_research_suggests-86370

 

Peat fires could accelerate climate change

18 February 2012Vancouver, B.C. (Wednesday, February 15, 2012) – In 1997, a forest fire in Indonesia ignited an area of peatlands that smouldered for months. By the time it was over, the fire had released greenhouse gases equal to 20 to 40 percent of the total worldwide emissions that year from fossil fuels. 

But that could be a drop in the bucket compared to future emissions from peat fires. Indonesian peatlands are dwarfed by Canada’s. The total area of all peatland in Canada is estimated to be about twice the size of Saskatchewan.

At this week’s meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Vancouver, Douglas Woolford of Wilfrid Laurier University will present findings that show how the fire season is becoming longer, and Mike Flannigan of the University of Alberta will highlight the increased risk of peat fires.

During a forest fire, especially in years of drought, peat can also ignite. When that happens, it produces a smoldering, smoky burn that is difficult to extinguish. Peat can grow several meters deep beneath the ground. In fact, some peat fires burn right through winter, beneath the snow, then pick up again in the spring.

A warming climate appears to be increasing the risk of peat fires in the North, according to Flannigan. For example, in 2007, Alaska’s Anaktuvuk River region experienced a “tundra fire” fuelled by peat that covered 1,000 square kilometres. Until then, fire had largely been absent from the tundra since the Holocene epoch—12,000 years ago.

Woolford’s statistical analysis has shown that the forest fire season is becoming longer. Now, climate change models have been used to predict greater risk of forest fires in the future. On top of that, a warming climate means dryer weather, which makes peatlands—rich in legacy carbon—more likely to ignite and release greenhouse gas emissions. This would further contribute to global warming, creating a vicious circle of environmental harm.

Woolford and Flannigan will present their findings at the AAAS session Forest Fires in Canada: Impacts of Climate Change and Fire Smoke that will take place on Sunday, February 19, from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m., in Room 109 of the Vancouver Convention Centre West Building.

The session will be the subject of a special AAAS news briefing for media in Vancouver on Saturday, February 18 at 2:00 p.m. (PST).

Sources:Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and

http://www.sciencecodex.com/peat_fires_could_accelerate_climate_change-86369
 


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