Forest Worker Exposure to Airborne Herbicide Residues in Smoke from Prescribed Fires in the Southern United States

A Screening-Level Assessment of the Health Risks of Chronic Smoke Exposure for Wildland Firefighters

“…These included two studies by the USDA Forest Service, (25,26) and one by the State of California Department of Health Services. (27) One of the Forest Service studies measured smoke exposure among 221 firefighters at 39 prescribed fires in the Pacific Northwest during 1991-1993.…”

“…(25) The other Forest Service study examined exposure to CO, total particulate matter, and herbicides among firefighters conducting 14 days of prescribed burning in southern pine plantations treated with herbicides during 1988. (26) Data from Reinhardt et al (25) were used as the basis of the Table II exposure estimates for prescribed burns because of the larger data set and the consistency of the findings with the work of McMahon and Bush, (26) and the results of Materna et al (27) Reinhardt et al (25) obtained 2886 measurements from breathing zone samples at 39 prescribed burns in Washington and Oregon between 1991 and 1994. They collected 1937 validated measurements of firefighters' exposure to benzene, acrolein, formaldehyde, CO, carbon dioxide, and PM3.5 during prescribed burns, using the methods described above for wildfires.…”

Resuspension and redistribution of radionuclides during grassland and forest fires in the Chernobyl exclusion zone: part I. Fire experiments

“…Not only black carbon and organic material derives from pyrogenic emissions but also species such as K, Cl,SO 4 , NO x and heavy elements such as Cu and Zn (Andreae and Merlet, 2001;Yamasoe et al, 2000). Herbicide residues (McMahon and Bush, 1992) and radioactive iodine, caesium and chlorine were found in the smoke of biomass fires (Amiro et al, 1996). These trace substances may affect the surrounding of the fires and people in this area (e.g.…”

Human Health Impacts of Forest Fires in the Southern United States: A Literature Review

“…Research on fire worker exposures to carbon monoxide is equivocal on the issue of dose-exposures. Some studies found that fire workers' exposures to carbon monoxide during an 8-hour work shift did not exceed the OSHA-PEL of 35 ppm/hr (McMahon and Bush 1992). At wildfires, instantaneous carbon monoxide exposures of fireline crew have been measured to range from 3-80 ppm which is below the OSHA ceiling limit of 200 ppm.…”