D592 Task 1 Environmental Hazard Analysis Example

Smoke From a Thousand Miles Away: Wildfire Smoke in a Composite Midwestern County, the Human Activities Behind It, the Government's Role and What the Community Can Do

Student Name

Leavitt School of Health, Western Governors University

D592: Environmental Health, Task 1

Course Instructor

Month Day, Year

Smoke From a Thousand Miles Away: Wildfire Smoke in a Composite Midwestern County, the Human Activities Behind It, the Government's Role and What the Community Can Do

The Hazard and Its Health Effects

On eleven days last summer, the air quality index in Maple Plains County, a composite Midwestern county of about 250,000 people, reached levels considered unhealthy, although the nearest large fire burned hundreds of miles away in Canada. The pollutant responsible was fine particulate matter, particles small enough to travel deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. A critical review of the research found consistent evidence that wildfire smoke exposure is associated with respiratory illness and growing evidence of an association with all-cause mortality, while the evidence on cardiovascular outcomes was less settled at that time (Reid et al., 2016).

The problem is no longer limited to the West. During the smoke episodes from Canadian wildfires between April and August 2023, asthma-associated emergency department visits across the United States were 17% higher than expected on smoke days, with larger increases in regions that had more consecutive smoke days and among people aged 5 to 64 (McArdle et al., 2023). Maple Plains saw a similar pattern: its two hospitals reported a sharp rise in asthma and breathing complaints on the worst days.

How Human Activities Contribute

Wildfires are natural, but human activity has changed how often they burn, how large they grow and how many people they reach. Warmer temperatures and longer, drier fire seasons, driven by climate change, dry out forests. A century of fire suppression allowed fuels to build up in many forests. People have built homes deep into fire-prone land: nearly 50 million homes in the United States sit in the wildland-urban interface, a number growing by about 1 million every three years, and wildfires have accounted for up to a quarter of fine particulate pollution nationally in recent years and up to half in some western regions (Burke et al., 2021). People also start most wildfires through equipment, debris burning, power lines and carelessness.

Once smoke forms, human systems shape exposure. Older homes without air conditioning or good filtration let smoke indoors. Outdoor work in agriculture and construction keeps some people outside on the worst days. Schools and sports programs may continue outdoor activities if no one decides otherwise.

Who Is Most at Risk

Children, whose lungs are still developing and who breathe more air relative to their body size; older adults; pregnant people; people with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or heart disease; and outdoor workers face the greatest risk. In Maple Plains, the county's agricultural workforce, its older rural population and its children with asthma make up a large share of residents who need protection.

The Role of Government

Federal. The Environmental Protection Agency sets national air quality standards for fine particles, runs the air quality index and, with other agencies, operates the monitoring networks and public forecasts residents see on phones and newspapers. Federal land management agencies conduct prescribed burns and forest thinning to reduce fuel loads. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks health effects, as in the syndromic surveillance used for the 2023 smoke episodes. Federal workplace safety rules do not include a standard written specifically for wildfire smoke, although a few states, including California and Oregon, have adopted their own.

State. The state environmental agency operates air monitors, issues air quality alerts and decides how smoke events are handled in its plans for meeting air quality standards. The state health department issues health guidance.

Local. The county health department translates alerts into local action, advises schools and employers, and coordinates with emergency management. Local governments decide whether to open cleaner-air spaces and how to reach residents who do not receive alerts.

How the Community Can Reduce Risk

The county cannot stop distant fires, but it can reduce exposure. The health department should adopt a smoke action plan with clear triggers: when the forecast air quality index reaches 101, alerts go to schools, employers, clinics and residents in English and Spanish; at 151, schools move recess and athletics indoors and the county opens libraries and community centers with good filtration as cleaner-air spaces.

Schools should upgrade ventilation filters to higher-efficiency ratings and keep portable air cleaners in classrooms that serve children with asthma. Employers of outdoor workers should schedule heavy work for times of better air, provide well-fitting respirators and allow breaks indoors. Clinics should give patients with asthma and lung or heart disease written action plans for smoke days. Community groups can distribute low-cost box fan filters, made from a fan and a household furnace filter, to families who cannot afford portable air cleaners.

The health department should evaluate the plan after each season by comparing asthma emergency visits on smoke days with previous years, counting cleaner-air space visits and surveying schools and employers about whether they received and acted on alerts.

Equity Considerations

Smoke does not fall evenly on everyone who breathes it. Families in older rental housing often cannot seal windows or run air conditioning, and landlords may not replace filters. Farmworkers and day laborers may lose wages if they stop work, and some are reluctant to raise concerns with employers. Residents who speak languages other than English, or who do not use smartphone apps, may never see an alert. For these reasons, the smoke plan should send alerts through radio stations and community groups that reach Spanish-speaking and older rural residents, prioritize filter distribution to renters and families with children who have asthma, and work with the county's agricultural employers' association so that outdoor workers are not forced to choose between their pay and their lungs. Measuring the plan's reach in these groups, not only in the county as a whole, will show whether protection is being shared fairly.

Conclusion

Wildfire smoke shows how environmental health hazards cross borders and jurisdictions. Human activities make fires larger and more frequent, and human systems determine who breathes the smoke. Maple Plains cannot control the fires, but with clear government roles and a practical smoke plan, it can protect the residents most at risk.

References

Burke, M., Driscoll, A., Heft-Neal, S., Xue, J., Burney, J., & Wara, M. (2021). The changing risk and burden of wildfire in the United States. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(2), e2011048118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2011048118

McArdle, C. E., Dowling, T. C., Carey, K., DeVies, J., Johns, D., Gates, A. L., Stein, Z., van Santen, K. L., Radhakrishnan, L., Kite-Powell, A., Soetebier, K., Sacks, J. D., Sircar, K., Hartnett, K. P., & Mirabelli, M. C. (2023). Asthma-associated emergency department visits during the Canadian wildfire smoke episodes: United States, April-August 2023. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 72(34), 926-932. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7234a5

Reid, C. E., Brauer, M., Johnston, F. H., Jerrett, M., Balmes, J. R., & Elliott, C. T. (2016). Critical review of health impacts of wildfire smoke exposure. Environmental Health Perspectives, 124(9), 1334-1343. https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1409277