Wildfire smoke impacts on indoor air quality assessed using crowdsourced data in California.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34465624.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1073/pnas.2106478118 and PMC identifier 8433518.
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Abstract
Wildfires have become an important source of particulate matter (PM<sub>2.5</sub> < 2.5-µm diameter), leading to unhealthy air quality index occurrences in the western United States. Since people mainly shelter indoors during wildfire smoke events, the infiltration of wildfire PM<sub>2.5</sub> into indoor environments is a key determinant of human exposure and is potentially controllable with appropriate awareness, infrastructure investment, and public education. Using time-resolved observations outside and inside more than 1,400 buildings from the crowdsourced PurpleAir sensor network in California, we found that the geometric mean infiltration ratios (indoor PM<sub>2.5</sub> of outdoor origin/outdoor PM<sub>2.5</sub>) were reduced from 0.4 during non-fire days to 0.2 during wildfire days. Even with reduced infiltration, the mean indoor concentration of PM<sub>2.5</sub> nearly tripled during wildfire events, with a lower infiltration in newer buildings and those utilizing air conditioning or filtration.
Medical subject headings
- Air Pollution, Indoor
- Crowdsourcing
- Environmental Exposure
- Fires
- Particulate Matter
- Smoke