Smoke from forest fires contains significant amounts of gaseous and particulate pollutants. Firefighters exposed to wildland fire smoke can suffer from several acute and chronic adverse health effects. Consequently, exposure data are of vital importance for the establishment of cause/effect relationships between exposure to smoke and firefighter health effects. The aims of this study were to (1) characterize the relationship between wildland smoke exposure and medical parameters and (2) identify health effects pertinent to wildland forest fire smoke exposure. In this study, firefighter exposure levels of carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), and volatile organic compounds (VOC) were measured in wildfires during three fire seasons in Portugal. Personal monitoring devices were used to measure exposure. Firefighters were also tested for exhaled nitric oxide (eNO) and CO before and after their firefighting activities. Data indicated that exposure levels during firefighting activities were beyond limits recommended by the Occupational Exposure Standard (OES) values. Medical tests conducted on the firefighters also indicated a considerable effect on measured medical parameters, with a significant increase in CO and decrease in NO in exhaled air of majority of the firefighters.

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The exposure of students to traffic-emitted carbon monoxide (CO) in their daily walk to school is evaluated, with a particular emphasis on the effect of trees and route choice. The study is focused on the city centre of Aveiro, in central Portugal. Time evolution of the georeferenced location of an individual is tracked with a GPS for different alternative walking routes to a school. Spatial distribution of CO concentration is simulated with a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. An exposure model is developed that associates the georeferenced location of the student with the computed air quality levels (at an average breathing height) for that specific grid cell. For each individual, the model calculates the instantaneous exposure at each time frame and the mean value for a given period. Results show a general benefit induced by the trees over the mean exposure of the student in each route. However, in the case of instantaneous exposure values, this is not consistent along the entire period. Also, the variability of the estimated exposure values indicates the potential error that can be committed when using a single value of air quality as a surrogate of air pollution exposure.