Social adversity and environmental pollution are distributed across space and concentrated in communities of color and of low socioeconomic status, leading to worse health outcomes in these communites.
In California, the increase in wildfire smoke events has likely had cascading and widespread impacts in these communities. With wildfires expected to increase in scale and frequency, there is a critical need to understand the impact of reoccuring and prolonged wildfire smoke exposure on health and how this health risk differs across communities.
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Study Objectives
Objective 1: Develop a sub-daily PM2.5 dataset
Relying on daily-averaged fine particulate matter (PM2.5) masks periods of high-intensity, short-duration exposures that could correspond to acute health responses. This work produces high-resolution, hourly PM2.5 estimates from 2018-2023 across California by assimilating a high-resolution atmospheric smoke model with dense networks of state-wide air quality monitoring data to provide inputs to future exposure models.
Objective 2: Estimate infiltration of outdoor PM2.5 into indoor residences
This work estimates how housing attributes (e.g., structure type and condition, year built, presence of air conditioning) and human behaviors (e.g., window opening, use of mechanical ventilation and/or filtration system) modify the infiltration of wildfire-specific PM2.5 into the indoor environment to provide novel insights that are vital when considering exposure risk and mitigation strategies, leveraging the growing network of low-cost Purple Air monitors in the state of California.
