Air-Quality Impacts and Intake Fraction of PM2.5 During the 2013 Rim Megafire

Details

• Personal Author:
  Balmes JR ; Cisneros R ; Larkin NK ; Navarro KM ; O'Neill SM ; Schweizer D
• Description:
  The 2013 Rim Fire was the third largest wildfire in California history and burned 257,314 acres in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We evaluated air-quality impacts of PM2.5 from smoke from the Rim Fire on receptor areas in California and Nevada. We employed two approaches to examine the air-quality impacts: (1) an evaluation of PM2.5 concentration data collected by temporary and permanent air-monitoring sites and (2) an estimation of intake fraction (iF) of PM2.5 from smoke. The Rim Fire impacted locations in the central Sierra nearest to the fire and extended to the northern Sierra Nevada Mountains of California and Nevada monitoring sites. Daily 24-h average PM2.5 concentrations measured at 22 air monitors had an average concentration of 20 ug/m3 and ranged from 0 to 450 ug/m3. The iF for PM2.5 from smoke during the active fire period was 7.4 per million, which is slightly higher than representative iF values for PM2.5 in rural areas and much lower than for urban areas. This study is a unique application of intake fraction to examine emissions-to-exposure for wildfires and emphasizes that air-quality impacts are not only localized to communities near large fires but can extend long distances and affect larger urban areas. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollutants, Occupational Air Pollution Environmental Monitoring Firefighters Fires Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Particulate Matter Safety Wildfires
• Keywords:
  Airborne Particles Airborne Particulates Air Pollutants Air Quality Air Quality Measurement Air Quality Monitoring Air Samples Air Sampling Combustion Emission Sources Employee Exposure Environmental Impacts Environmental Monitoring Fire Fighters Fire Fighting Fire Suppression Forest Fires Humans Occupational Exposure Particle Size Particulates Smoke Control Smoke Inhalation

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• ISSN:
  0013-936X
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 10 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  50
• Issue:
  21
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20052899
• Citation:
  Environ Sci Technol 2016 Nov; 50(21):11965-11973
• Contact Point Address:
  Ricardo Cisneros, School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of California - Merced, Merced, California 95343, United States
• Email:
  rcisneros@ucmerced.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2017
• Performing Organization:
  University of California, Berkeley
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Environmental Science and Technology
• End Date:
  20250630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:666457de1dba2c36f153a572dcb849f50dc3eb6cab76db60d2522c4826522f38984f4c90f41f88f7d17f97f59a314a296c17ca644d0cde1844483e26e4e35609
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/215805/cdc_215805_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.49 MB ]