Exposure to Smoke From Wildfire, Prescribed, and Agricultural Burns Among At-Risk Populations Across Washington, Oregon, and California

Abstract

Wildfires, prescribed burns, and agricultural burns all impact ambient air quality across the Western U.S.; however, little is known about how communities across the region are differentially exposed to smoke from each of these fire types. To address this gap, we quantify smoke exposure stemming from wildfire, prescribed, and agricultural burns across Washington, Oregon, and California from 2014 to 2020 using a fire type-specific biomass burning emissions inventory and the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model. We examine fire type-specific PM_2.5 concentration by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and in relation to the Center for Disease Control's Social Vulnerability Index. Overall, population-weighted PM_2.5 concentrations are greater from wildfires than from prescribed and from agricultural burns. While we found limited evidence of exposure disparities among sub-groups across the full study area, we did observe disproportionately higher exposures to wildfire-specific PM_2.5 exposures among Native communities in all three states and, in California, higher agricultural burn-specific PM_2.5 exposures among lower socioeconomic groups. We also identified, for all three states, areas of significant spatial clustering of smoke exposures from all fire types and increased social vulnerability. These results provide a first look at the differential contributions of smoke from wildfires, prescribed burns, and agricultural burns to PM_2.5 exposures among demographic subgroups, which can be used to inform more tailored exposure reduction strategies across sources.