Wildfire Today

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Wildfire Today

Category: Smoke

California put wine industry profits above farmworker safety during 2020 wildfires, study finds

Author Hunter BasslerPosted on Categories Research, Safety, Smoke, Wildfire

Wildfires burned more than 429,000 acres of land in California’s Sonoma County in 2020. The LNU Lightning Complex and the Glass Fire destroyed 1,500 structures and burned numerous grape vineyards.

A new study found during those fires, the county’s government prioritized the county’s wine industry profits over the lives of the people working those fields.

Researchers from the University of California – Irvine and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, recently published a study in the GeoHealth scientific journal that focused on the safety protections for farmworkers and the effectiveness of air monitoring in Sonoma County. The study found that farmworkers were exposed to high pollution levels from nearby wildfires while being excluded from mandated evacuation zones.

By Dripwoods – Taken of the Hennessey Fire, CC BY-SA 4.0

RELATED: Will fire be the death of California’s wine industry?

“Wildfires prompted Sonoma County’s businesses and government to prioritize the wine industry by advocating for initiatives that may put farmworkers’ lives at risk,” the researchers found.

Those initiatives included the adoption of an Agricultural Pass program, which allows farm bosses to apply for permits which allowed farmworkers to keep harvesting crops in mandatory evacuation zones during wildfires.

The study found 96 Agricultural Pass program applications were submitted during the Glass Fire, including 120 worksites and 633 workers. Another 370 permits were submitted during the LNU Lightning Complex yielded 370 permits and included 590 worksites and 1,603 workers. Researchers also said the exact number of workers for each permit is unreliable because of mismatches between permits and the absence of worker counts on some permits.

“Given the program’s lack of oversight, inconsistencies with state-level emergency protocols, and insufficient monitoring of hazardous air quality in the impacted regions, there is a need to further analyze the risks, health impacts, and structural inequalities the program imposes on farmworkers, in particular those who are undocumented,” the study said.

Hennessey Fire August 18, 2020
Hennessey Fire August 18, 2020

The researchers suggested a variety of policy changes in regards to their findings, including:

  • Mandatory Employer Emergency Plans and Emergency Training
  • Clear Protocols on Identifying Workers and Locations
  • Real-Time Monitoring of Air Quality
  • Hazard Pay
  • Post-Exposure Health Screenings
  • Post-Incident Accountability and Data Accuracy

Another study conducted in late 2023 found wildfire smoke could be much more toxic than officials previously believed.

Researchers from Stanford University studied soil from the LNU Complex and the 2019 Kincade Fire, finding wildfires can create cancer-causing toxic heavy metals depending on where they burn and the severity of the flames. At the burn scars, the team measured the levels of chromium 6, which is known by most as the toxic chemical from the 2000 film Erin Brockovich, and they found dangerous levels of it in certain areas of the fire.

“Up until now, for wildfires at least, we’ve worried a lot about the fine particulate exposure … what we’ve been blind to is that those ultra-fine particles can differ in composition,” researcher Scott Fendorf previously told WildfireToday. “Even in wildfires that are completely removed from any dwellings, with certain geologies and certain vegetation types which are pretty common, we can see that the particles have these toxic metals in them.”

READ MORE: Wildfire smoke toxicity worsened by heavy metals in soil, flame intensity

WILDLAND FIRE CANADA: Conference registration now open

Author Guest WriterPosted on Categories SmokeTags , ,

Registration is open for the 2024 Wildland Fire Canada Conference, a biennial conference scheduled for October 28 to November 1 in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. It will bring together wildland fire management agencies, indigenous fire experts, scientists, and collaborators from across Canada and other countries.

Wildland Fire Canada Conference

The theme of this year’s conference is Transforming Wildland Fire Management, i.e. taking a collective and inclusive approach to wildland fire management in which Canadians at all levels of government work together to co-exist with wildland fire — including prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery.

Registration rates (CAD):

Early registration (until 8/15) — $600
Registration (8/16 – 10/14) — $750
Late registration (10/14 – 10/28) — $800
Student registration — $250
One-day rate — $375
Virtual Registration — $300

Group registration available for virtual tickets:

            • $300/ticket for fewer than 5 tickets
            • $250/ticket for 6-10 tickets
            • $200/ticket for 11-20 tickets
            • $150/ticket for 20+ tickets

In-person registration: This includes access to all sessions and social activities. Registrants can access to the virtual conference platform to watch recorded presentations and network with remote attendees.

Virtual registration: This includes access to all sessions and online networking activities. Sessions will be recorded and made available for at least 6 months after the conference. You will receive access details about a week before the conference.

Join us in late October either in New Brunswick or online — or both — for this exciting collaboration with Canadian professionals and other international wildland fire experts!

Siberian wildfire smoke increases could cause thousands of deaths, billions in costs for East Asia

Author Hunter BasslerPosted on Categories Smoke, UncategorizedTags , ,

A team from Japan’s Hokkaido University’s research study recently uncovered worrying findings for residents across East Asia. The team looked into the increasing frequency of wildfires in Siberia, and the growing threat of smoke that Japan and other areas downwind of Siberia are forced to breathe.

Previous studies have confirmed wildfires are becoming more common in Arctic biomes across the globe, including Siberia. A 2022 USFS study found wildfires in Siberia tripled from the 2001 – 2010 period to the 2011 – 2020 period. The area burned by wildfires in Siberia also increased by a factor of 2.6 during the same period.

Siberian smoke

“We found that annual fire frequency and the extent of burnt areas were related to various combinations of seasonal air temperature, precipitation, ground moisture, and lightning frequency,” the 2022 study said. “Increased wildfire and loss of permafrost may threaten ongoing settlement and industrialization, particularly for western Siberia.”

But the wildfires have implications for residents in numerous areas other than Siberia. The Hokkaido University researchers used global climate simulation models to evaluate how the expected increase in wildfires, and wildfire smoke, will affect people downwind of Siberia.

The researchers found smoke from Siberia’s wildfires releases aerosols, or air pollution particles that reflect sunlight away from the earth’s surface, which greatly degrades air quality, leading to a drastic increase in air pollution, possibly thousands of deaths, and billions of dollars in economic losses, including upwards of:

        • 70,000 deaths and $80 billion in losses across China
        • 32,000 deaths and $100 billion in losses in Japan
        • 4,000 deaths and $20 billion in losses in South Korea

Siberian smoke study

“Despite the limitations of our study, our findings provide readers with a critical message on the effect of increased particulate matter caused by Siberian wildfires on climate and air quality as well as mortality and the economy under present and future atmospheric conditions,” the researchers said. “Future studies must aim to prevent air pollution emissions from Siberian wildfires and take further preventive measures in the future under ongoing and future climate changes.”

Read the full study here.

A team from Japan’s Hokkaido University’s research study recently uncovered worrying findings for residents across East Asia. The team looked into the increasing frequency of wildfires in Siberia, and the growing threat of smoke that Japan and other areas downwind of Siberia are forced to breathe.

Smoke temporarily covered nearly all U.S. lakes between 2019 and 2021

Author Hunter BasslerPosted on Categories SmokeTags , ,

As wildfire activity and severity increase globally, so too does the pervasiveness of wildfire smoke.

Researchers in the U.S. are working to find out how growing amounts of wildfire smoke nationwide affect ecosystems including aquatic habitats. A recent study published in the Global Change Biology research journal found that even smoke impacts lake ecology.

“An incredible 98.9 percent of lakes experienced at least 10 smoke-days a year, with 89.6 percent of lakes receiving over 30 lake smoke-days, and lakes in some regions experiencing up to 4 months of cumulative smoke-days,” the study said.

lake smoke

The term “smoke-days” describes the number of days on which any portion of a lake’s boundary intersected with smoke as defined by NOAA’s hazard mapping system daily smoke product. The smoke-days concept has been used previously to demonstrate smoke exposure by ecoregion, but was used specifically for lakes for the first time in this study.

Smoke and ash from wildfires lower the solar radiation that enters lake habitats, affecting organisms in numerous ways from physiology to behavior, according to the research. Particles from the smoke deposited within lake ecosystems can also affect several biological and geological processes, including the availability and cycling of various nutrients.

Less than 0.01 percent of land in North America burned between 2019 and 2021, but the area covered in smoke was 75 percent of the continent’s total land. The year 2021 marked the largest number of high-density lake smoke-days and is the year with the largest portion of the country burned and largest area covered with smoke, while 2020 had the lowest number of high-density smoke-days and the smallest area burned and smallest area covered with smoke.

“Large knowledge gaps impede our ability to predict and manage the responses of lakes to smoke and ash,” the researchers concluded. “Measuring the extent and effects of smoke and ash deposition remains challenging. Larger-scale studies are necessary to disentangle the mediating effects of scale and watershed context on the responses of lakes to smoke and ash deposition.”

Read the entire study here.

Smoke warnings don’t arrive soon enough

Author Kelly AnderssonPosted on Categories SmokeTags , , , 3 Comments on Smoke warnings don’t arrive soon enough

A new study report from the University of Oregon suggests that public warnings on wildfire smoke air quality often aren’t issued till after smoke has already swept into the area. The report details recommendations on better communications by public institutions about wildfire smoke and health risks — so that local residents have more time to prepare. More than half of wildfire-related tweets by 32 institutional accounts in 2022 were posted at peak levels of smoke when exposure risk was highest.

“On the one side, these institutions are doing a great job of highlighting the risks when the risks are present,” said Catherine Slavik, a postdoctoral researcher at the U of O Center for Science Communication Research. She said she hopes more of these conversations will occur before it’s too late for affected residents to prepare.

smoke alerts by location

KEZI reported that of 1287 analyzed tweets, only one in seven instructed and encouraged preparation such as wearing respirators, staying indoors, or using air purifiers. Only 213 of all the tweets used AQI labels to report on the smoky air and only 64 described risks with numeric data — such as percentage likelihood of a fire spreading or the number of acres burning.

Recommendations for smoke communications include expressing hazard severity, risk, likelihood, and mitigation, including numeric information and AQI levels when describing risks, practicing community engagement, and discussing risks outside of the fire season.

during

Smoke reduced life expectancy across Washington

Author Hunter BasslerPosted on Categories SmokeTags , , 8 Comments on Smoke reduced life expectancy across Washington

Most of Washington State’s hazardous air pollution comes from wildfire smoke, burdening already over-burdened populations in the state and lowering the average number of years people in those communities are expected to live.

A new report from the state’s Department of Ecology looked into air pollution across Washington and found that the largest contributor to air pollution in over-burdened communities was from wildfire smoke. The DOE is working to improve air quality in 16 places, representing numerous communities, neighborhoods, and towns across Washington that are overburdened and highly impacted by criteria air pollution.

Targeted areas in Washington

The federal Clean Air Act requires the EPA to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for six common air pollutants. The DOE monitors these pollutants and acts if levels become unhealthy. These  pollutants are:

During the cold season, the largest contributor to air pollution was usually smoke from wood-burning stoves or furnaces.

Residents of the studied overburdened communities, on average, live 2.4 years shorter lives than the state average and also have higher numbers of deaths from cardiovascular disease.

Satellite photo, Bolt Creek (on the north) and Cedar Creek fires Sept. 10, 2022. Processed by Pierre Markuse.
Satellite photo, Bolt Creek (north) and Cedar Creek fires Sept. 2022. Processed by Pierre Markuse.

“Long-term exposure to air pollution may contribute to development of disease — for example, asthma development in children or chronic cardiovascular conditions in adults,” the department’s report says. “Further, short-term exposure to air pollution is associated with exacerbations in existing conditions such as asthma or COPD.”

The overburdened communities included:

        • Spokane and Spokane Valley
        • Tri-Cities to Wallula
        • East Yakima
        • Lower Yakima Valley
        • Moxee Valley
        • George and West Grant County
        • Mattawa
        • Ellensburg
        • Wenatchee and East Wenatchee
        • Everett
        • North Seattle and Shoreline
        • South Seattle
        • South King County
        • Northeast Puyallup
        • South and East Tacoma
        • Vancouver

The report also warns that life expectancies in these communities may drop even further as the frequency of wildfire smoke events has been rising. The worry is in line with USDA research that points to wildfire seasons in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho that are projected to last longer with increased wildfire frequency, size, and total acres burned as a result of climate change.

“In Northwest forests, a warming climate coupled with more frequent wildfires will lead to a shift away from shade-tolerant, thin-barked, or fire-intolerant species such as western hemlock, subalpine fir, and Engelmann spruce,” the report said. “With warmer and drier conditions and more frequent disturbance, some locations will likely shift from forest to shrubland or grassland.”