Wildfires pollute much more than previously thought

Summer wildfires boost air pollution considerably more than previously believed. Naturally burning timber and brush launch what are called fine particles into the air at a rate three times as high as levels noted in emissions inventories at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to a new study. The microscopic specks that form aerosols are a hazard to human health, particularly to the lungs and heart. “Burning biomass produces lots of pollution. These are really bad aerosols to breathe from a health point of view,” said Greg Huey, an atmospheric scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and lead author of the new study published today in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, a publication of the American Geophysical Union. The research also describes other chemicals in wildfire smoke, some never before measured, and it raises the estimated annual emission of particulate matter in the western United States significantly. The previous EPA data had been based on plume samples taken in controlled burns ignited by forestry professionals. Measuring plumes so thoroughly, from the sky, directly in the thick of a wildfire had not been possible before this study.. Particulate matter, some of which contains oxidants that cause genetic damage, are in the resulting aerosols. They can drift over long distances into populated areas. People are exposed to harmful aerosols from industrial sources, too, but fires produce more aerosol per amount of fuel burned. “Cars and power plants with pollution controls burn things much more cleanly,” Huey said....more