wildfire smoke

The federal government has issued new guidelines to wildland firefighters for the voluntary use of protective masks. The move comes as knowledge of long-term health risks faced by such workers – including cancer – grows.

Prescribed burns are widely recognized as an effective wildfire mitigation tool. Now, using satellite imagery, land management records and fire emissions data, a team of researchers has put hard numbers to those impacts.

More than 200 people are working from the air and on the ground to suppress the fire despite erratic winds.

Federal forecasters say there is above-average potential for significant wildfires all the way through the end of September across a vast swath of the Western U.S.

Most of the states in our region have at least one county that violates the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Ambient Air Quality Standard.

Much of southern Arizona and New Mexico are expected to see above average potential for wildfire in April.

Nearby smoke plumes can drop generation substantially, but smoke that blows in from distant blazes appears to have only a "modest" effect.

Researchers pored over roughly four dozen papers that assessed exposure to various carcinogens on the fireline. They identified 31 carcinogens – including asbestos, volatile organic compounds like benzene and crystalline silica.

Researchers were looking at PM 2.5 pollution, made up of particles with diameters at least 30 times smaller than human hair. They found that for every additional microgram from wildfires per cubic meter of air on average over rolling 3-year periods, patients faced an 18 percent increase in the odds of a dementia diagnosis. The figure for non-wildfire PM 2.5 was just 1 percent.

Two wildfires raging in northern Wyoming have caused both areas to evacuate Monday morning. The Pack Trail Fire in the Bridger Teton National Forest and the Elk Fire in the Bighorn National Forest have been burning for weeks. Both wildfires are causing air quality alerts nearby.