Face-to-face with scorching wildfire: potential toxicant exposure and the health risks of smoke for wildland firefighters at the wildland-urban interface

Jooyeon Hwang; Ngee-Sing Chong; Mengliang Zhang; Robert J Agnew; Chao Xu; Zhuangjie Li; Xin Xu

doi:10.1016/j.lana.2023.100482

Face-to-face with scorching wildfire: potential toxicant exposure and the health risks of smoke for wildland firefighters at the wildland-urban interface

Lancet Reg Health Am. 2023 Mar 26:21:100482. doi: 10.1016/j.lana.2023.100482. eCollection 2023 May.

Authors

Jooyeon Hwang^{1

2}, Ngee-Sing Chong³, Mengliang Zhang³, Robert J Agnew⁴, Chao Xu⁵, Zhuangjie Li⁶, Xin Xu⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, Hudson College of Public Health, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK 73104, USA.
² Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics, and Environmental Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
³ Department of Chemistry, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN 37132, USA.
⁴ Fire Protection & Safety Engineering Technology Program, College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA.
⁵ Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Hudson College of Public Health, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK 73104, USA.
⁶ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, California State University at Fullerton, Fullerton, CA 92831, USA.
⁷ Shanghai Anti-doping Laboratory, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai 200438, China.

Abstract

As wildfire risks have elevated due to climate change, the health risks that toxicants from fire smoke pose to wildland firefighters have been exacerbated. Recently, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has reclassified wildland firefighters' occupational exposure as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1). Wildfire smoke contributes to an increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease, yet wildland firefighters have inadequate respiratory protection. The economic cost of wildland fires has risen concurrently, as illustrated by the appropriation of $45 billion for wildfire management over FYs 2011-2020 by the U.S. Congress. Occupational epidemiological studies of wildland firefighters are crucial for minimizing health risks; however, they must account for the mixture of exposures in wildfire smoke. This review focuses on four aspects of wildland firefighters' health risks at the wildland-urban interface: 1) economic costs and health impact, 2) respiratory protection, 3) multipollutant mixtures, and 4) proactive management of wildfires.

Keywords: Exposure assessment; Firefighter; Multi-pollutant mixtures of fire smoke; Occupational and environmental health; Prescribed burn; Wildfire; Wildland-urban interface (WUI).

Publication types

Review

Abstract

Publication types

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