Editorial: Understanding and communicating wildland fire smoke risk

Abstract

Globally, smoke from landscape fires - including wildland fire (encompassing wildfires and prescribed fires), agricultural burning, tropical deforestation fires, peat fires, and grass fires - is estimated to cause 339,000 deaths annually (1). Epidemiological, clinical, animal, and cellular studies support a positive association between short-term exposure to wildland fire smoke and premature death and respiratory disease, namely exacerbation of asthma, bronchitis, and pneumonia (2-4). Emerging data suggest that exposure to wildland fire smoke also increases the risk of clinical cardiovascular events, such as myocardial infarction, heart rhythm disturbances, stroke, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, and acute heart failure (3, 5, 6). In addition, the potential for exposure to wildfire smoke during pregnancy to affect birth weight and prematurity is under exploration [(4, 7, 8) and references therein].

Citation

Hagler, Gayle S. W.; Henderson, Sarah B.; McCaffrey, Sarah; Johnston, Fay H.; Stone, Susan; Rappold, Ana; Cascio, Wayne E. 2021. Editorial: Understanding and communicating wildland fire smoke risk. Frontiers in Public Health. 9: 721823.