science in ACTION
INNOVATIVE RESEARCH FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
£EPA
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www.epa.gov/research
Wildland Fire
Research to Protect
Health arid
Environment
Fires are increasing in frequency,
size, and intensity partly due to
climate change and land management
practices, yet there is limited
knowledge of the impacts of smoke
emissions —both short term and long
term. EPA is using its expertise in air
quality research to fill the gaps in
scientific information and to develop
tools to prevent and reduce the
impact of wildfires and controlled or
prescribed burns. The wildland fire
research has three main goals:
•	Provide new science to
understand the impacts of
smoke on health, and how
this knowledge can instruct
smoke management practices
and intervention strategies to
reduce health impacts.
•	Provide essential novel data
on smoke emissions to
construct the national
emission inventory used to
understand air quality across
the country.
•	Improve understanding of
how smoke from fires affects
air quality and climate
change.
Health Effects Research
More intense wildfires are
creating the potential for greater
smoke production and chronic
exposures in the U.S.,
particularly in the West.
Researchers lift a monitoring balloon to track smoke from a prescribed fire in Camp Lejeune, N,C.
The effects of smoke from
wildfires can range from eye and
respiratory tract irritation to more
serious disorders, including
reduced lung function,
bronchitis, exacerbation of
asthma and heart failure, and
premature death. Children,
pregnant women, and the elderly
are especially vulnerable to
smoke exposure. Emissions from
wildfires are known to cause
increased visits to hospitals and
clinics by those exposed to
smoke.
Research is being conducted to
advance understanding of the
health effects from different
types of fires as well as
combustion phases. Researchers
want to know:
• What is the full extent of
health effects from smoke
exposure?
Who is most at risk?
What strategies and
approaches are most
effective in protecting public
health?
What are the environmental,
social and economic impacts
of wildfire emissions?
Tools & Technology Development
New scientific tools are needed
to better quantify and predict the
impact of smoke from wildland
fires on public health. EPA
research is supporting the
development of new air quality
monitors to measure wildfire
emissions; advancing modeling
capabilities to understand the
impact of wildfires on air quality
and improving wildfire emissions
inventories.
Air quality managers are
particularly interested in reliable
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and accurate tools and
technology that can be used to
assess the impacts of wildland
fires. Improved emissions data
and models can be used to better
assess the contribution of
wildland fires to air pollutants
and air toxics that are regulated
under the Clean Air Act.
Research questions that guide the
science to develop new emissions
and modeling tools include:
•	Does the smoke from
vegetation found throughout
the country (oak, pine,
chaparral, and peat) produce
different types and levels of
pollution?
•	What is the estimated smoke
exposure for those near fires,
and how does it relate to
observed health effects?
•	How do prescribed burns
contribute to air pollution
concerns?
Air Pollution Sensor
Systems. Researchers are
working to develop and evaluate
air pollution sensor systems that
can be deployed during active
fires and prescribed burns to
provide more robust smoke
emissions data. Light-weight
sensors have a great advantage in
that they can be placed on
location of a fire event or in
balloons and other aerostats to
measure air pollution at different
locations and altitudes in the fire
zone. Sensors are being tested for
their ability to measure
emissions, including air pollutant
concentrations and the dispersion
of smoke plumes.
Wildfire Emissions and
Emissions Inventories.
Measuring emissions from
wildland fires is important to
advancing our understanding of
the impact of the fires on air
quality and public health. The
2014 National Emissions
Inventory is the first recent
national fire inventory to provide
estimates of both flaming and
smoldering components of wild
and prescribed fires involving
varied fuel types. Laboratory and
field studies are being conducted
to provide more wildfire data to
the emissions inventory.
Modeling. Models are being
used to quantify the different
impacts from fire on air
pollutants. Researchers are using
new emissions data to improve
the capabilities of models, such
as EPA's Community Multiscale
Air Quality Model (CMAQ) to
track and evaluate smoke
emissions on air quality. The
findings can be used to better
protect public health and support
relevant regulatory
demonstrations.
Water & Ecosystem Protection
Wildland fires do not just destroy
trees, vegetation, wildlife and
structures that get in their paths.
They can also severely affect
water quality by causing soil
erosion, increased flooding and
debris flow. At the same time,
fires can result in the
resuspension of legacy mine and
industrial waste that has settled
in river bottoms.
Following a fire, an ecosystem
can be dramatically altered. Loss
of vegetation promotes erosion
and changing soil qualities can
impact the type of vegetation that
grows. Native species important
to ecological recovery and health
may have difficulty becoming
established as non-native and fast
growing species thrive.
Ecosystem diversity becomes
threatened.
Research is critical to better
understand how fires affect water
quality and supply and the
overall health of an ecosystem.
Studies are needed to learn more
about the impact of fires on water
treatment plant processes,
infiltration and the flow of
groundwater supplies. This
information can be used to
protect the safety of drinking
water and to assess whether a
water supply is vulnerable to the
impacts of fires.
Erosion impacts on stream flows
and contamination as well as
impacts on soil quality are
important to understand regrowth
and restoration of fire-impacted
areas. Research questions
include:
•	What are best watershed
practices for protecting water
quality from a wildfire?
•	What changes occur in
organic carbon mobilization
due to wildland fires?
•	Can prescribed burns be
managed to prevent or
reduce reemission of toxic
compounds in the soil?
For more information, please visit:
Wildland Fire Research EPA Webpage:
https://www.epa.gov/air-research/wildland-
fire-research-protect-health-and-environment
Contact:
Matthew Landis, EPA's Human Exposure and
Atmospheric Science Division, 919-541-
4841, landis.matthew@epa.gov.
June 2017
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Research and Development

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