House on fire: chemistry and toxicology of structural fire smoke at the wildland urban interface.
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Wildfires are increasing in size and incidence across the world and are a significant source of air pollution in the form of particulate matter, toxic vapors, and noxious gases. Inundation of smoke plumes into affected communities poses a major challenge for air quality management and public health. In addition to biomass smoke, combustion of dwellings, businesses, automobiles, household appliances and chemicals, and a plethora of synthetic materials as occurred with the 2018 “Camp fire” in California and the 2021 “Marshall fire” in Boulder Colorado, results in toxic emissions that could have profound and long-lasting adverse health and ecological outcomes. Notably smoke from these fires may contain hydrogen cyanide, acidic aerosols, heavy metals, and a host of organic compounds that are known, or suspected to be, carcinogens, caustic agents, and/or irritants. The relative potency of these emissions however is not well studied, particularly in a mixture environment, and EPA’s air quality index for criteria pollutants which are used to communicate health hazards in near real-time does not necessarily capture the full range of potential air toxic exposures. This session will highlight the chemistry of smoke from structural fires, provide an overview of the exposures in both structural and wildland firefighters, and describe efforts to assess the contribution of structural fires within wildland fire air samples. Later presentations will highlight what is known about the toxicology and carcinogenicity of these emissions and identify data gaps and approaches needed for risk assessment. This symposium aims to increase member awareness and quantitative information of the health hazards associated with combustion of structures during and after wildfire events, and to discuss how toxicology can inform early decision making for public health protection. (Does not reflect USEPA policy)