Wildland Fire Smoke: Health Effects and the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI)

The Federal NanoEHS Community is having a discussion on wildfire smoke and wildfires that enter the wildland urban interface (WUI). As wildfires enter the WUI they burn human made structures and materials resulting in a different wildfire smoke mix. This invited presentation will provide a summary of the health effects evidence for wildfire smoke exposure broadly, and an overview of work conducted by EPA scientists on WUI smoke and how this aligns with recommendations of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) panel that focused on WUI smoke emissions. 

Impact/Purpose

Invited presentation to the federal nanoEHS (Environmental Health Sciences) community on the current state of the science with respect to wildfire smoke-related health effects and WUI fire smoke. This presentation will provide a summary of the health effects associated with wildfire smoke exposure and examples of recent research focusing on WUI fire smoke. The audience for this presentation has limited engagement on wildfire smoke so this overview will provide them with background information as they consider potential areas of research they could embark on. 

Citation

Sacks, J. Wildland Fire Smoke: Health Effects and the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI). Federal nanoEHS Community Meeting, Virtual, VA, April 24, 2025.