Health Effects of Wildfire Smoke in Children and Public Health Tools: A Narrative Review

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol
• Personal Author:
  Holm, Stephanie M ; Miller, Mark D ; Balmes, John R
• Description:
  Wildfire smoke is an increasing environmental health threat to which children are particularly vulnerable, for both physiologic and behavioral reasons. To address the need for improved public health messaging this review summarizes current knowledge and knowledge gaps in the health effects of wildfire smoke in children, as well as tools for public health response aimed at children, including consideration of low-cost sensor data, respirators, and exposures in school environments. There is an established literature of health effects in children from components of ambient air pollution, which are also present in wildfire smoke, and an emerging literature on the effects of wildfire smoke, particularly for respiratory outcomes. Low-cost particulate sensors demonstrate the spatial variability of pollution, including wildfire smoke, where children live and play. Surgical masks and respirators can provide limited protection for children during wildfire events, with expected decreases of roughly 20%  and 80% for surgical masks and N95 respirators, respectively. Schools should improve filtration to reduce exposure of our nation's children to smoke during wildfire events. The evidence base described may help clinical and public health authorities provide accurate information to families to improve their decision making.
• Subjects:
  Air Pollution Child Environmental Exposure Humans Public Health Smoke Wildfires
• Keywords:
  Children Health Effects Masks Respirators Schools Wildfire Smoke
• Source:
  J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 31(1):1-20
• Pubmed ID:
  32952154
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC7502220
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  NU61TS000296/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/ ; R01 TS000296/TS/ATSDR CDC HHSUnited States/ ; R01TS000296/ACL/ACL HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  31
• Issue:
  1
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:06141c6a6f1e327a9473bcf77a72fcf8d9e13bdfc8c4b3aa501e159aee51baf6
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/100393/cdc_100393_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 538.86 KB ]