W Taylor & Francis Taylor&FrancisGroup

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Randall Shelton
6 years ago
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1 ', l nhalation Toxicology ISSN: (print), (electronic) lnhal Toxicol, 2016; 28(3): Taylor & Francis. DOI: / W Taylor & Francis Taylor&FrancisGroup REVIEW ARTICLE Review of the health effects of wildland fire smoke on wildland firefighters and the public Olorunfemi Adetona 1 2, Timothy E. Reinhardt 3, Joe Domitrovich 4, George Broyles 5, Anna M. Adetona 1, Michael T. Kleinman 6, Roger D. Ottmar 7, and Luke P. Naeher 1 \0 g 'Department of Environmental Health Science, College of Public Health, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA, 'Division of Environmental Health Sciences, College of Public Health, the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA, 3 AMEC Foster Wheeler Environment & Infrastructure, Inc, Seattle, WA, USA, ''USDA Forest Service, Missoula Technology and Development Center, Missoula, MT, USA, 5 SDA Forest Service, San Dimas Technology and Development Center, San Dimas, CA, USA, 6 Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA, and 7 USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Seattle, WA, USA - Vl 0 u.. <ii C: 0 ro 6 >,.D -0 QJ -0 ro 0 C: 0 Cl Abstract Each year, the general public and wildland firefighters in the US are exposed to smoke from wildland fires. As part of an effort to characterize health risks of breathing this smoke, a review of the literature was conducted using five major databases, including PubMed and MEDLINE Web of Knowledge, to identify smoke components that present the highest ha_zard potential, the mechanisms of toxicity, review epidemiological studies for health effects and identify the current gap in knowledge on the health impacts of wildland fire smoke exposure. Respiratory events measured in time series studies as incidences of disease-caused mortality, hospital admissions, emergency room visits and symptoms in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients are the health effects that are most commonly associated with community level exposure to wildland fire smoke. A few recent studies have also determined associations between acute wildland fire smoke exposure and cardiovascular health end-points. These cardiopulmonary effects were mostly observed in association with ambient air concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM 2.s). However, research on the health effects of this mixture is currently limited. The health effects of acute exposures beyond susceptible populations and the effects of chronic exposures experienced by the wildland firefighter are largely unknown. Longitudinal studies of wildland firefighters during and/or after the firefighting career could help elucidate some of the unknown health impacts of cumulative exposure to wildland fire smoke, establish occupational exposure limits and help determine the types of exposure controls that may be applicable to the occupation. Background Although smoke f r om burning wildland vegetation (wildland fire smoke) is known to be composed of many potentially harmful components, its impacts on human health are relatively understudied and inadequately understood. Vegetative biomass smoke under different exposure scenarios has been associated with various adverse health effects. However, fewer studies have investigated the adverse health effects of wildland (natural vegetation including forests, grasslands, chaparral, etc.) fire smoke compared with those experienced in association with residential combustion of wood or other vegetation based fuels; fewer still have Address ror correspondence: Luke P. Naeher, PhD, Department of Environmental Health Science, College of Public Health, University of Georgia, Environmental Health Science Building, Athens, GA , USA. Tel: +I LNaeher@uga.edu Keywords Cardiovascular effects, respiratory effects, toxicity mechanism, wildfire, wildland firefighter History Received 4 November 2015 Revised 15 January 2016 Accepted 20 January 2016 Published online 26 February 2016 examined the effects of occupational exposure among wildland/forest firefighters. The current review of vegetative biomass smoke exposure specifically examines adverse health effects of exposure to smoke emissions from forest fires or prescribed burns. Wildland fire smoke exposure is typically experienced on two levels: the community/general public level and occupationally among wildland firefighters. Due to climate change (Bedia et al., 2014; Johnston et al., 2012; Key wood et al., 2013; Liu et al., 2013), past forest management practices that have contributed to increased fuel loads in forests (Stephens & Ruth, 2005), large scale deforestation fires in developing countries (Silvestrine et al., 2011; Tosca et al., 2011) and increase in the number of people working and/or living in areas adjacent to forested areas which has resulted in the growth of the wildland-urban interface (Radeloff et al., 2005), the risk of exposures to wildfire smoke in both scenarios and their resulting adverse health effects may be expected to rise. A majority of the investigation into the community level health effects of wildfire smoke exposure has been conducted

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