Effectiveness of public health messaging and communication channels during smoke events: A rapid systematic review

Fish, Jennifer A.; Peters, Micah D J; Ramsey, Imogen; Sharplin, Greg; Corsini, Nadia; Eckert, Marion

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.02.012

Cited by 53 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The locationspecific index is calculated based on ambient surface concentrations of O3, PM2.5, and NO2 in population centres. The index is effective in relaying AQ conditions during smog episodes and forest fire smoke events (Fish et al, 2017). Vulnerable populations can adjust their daily activity to forecast AQHI levels, and many provincial and local health service agencies in Canada have 40…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The FireWork v2.0 air quality forecast system with biomass burning emissions from the Canadian Forest Fire Emissions Prediction System v2.03

Chen¹,

Anderson²,

Pavlovic³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Abstract. Biomass burning activities can produce large quantities of smoke and result in adverse air quality conditions in regional environments. In Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada's (ECCC) operational FireWork air quality forecast system incorporates near-real-time biomass burning emissions to forecast smoke plumes from fire events. The system is based on the ECCC operational Regional Air Quality Deterministic Prediction System (RAQDPS) augmented with near-real-time wildfire emissions using inputs from the Canadian Forest Service's (CFS) Canadian Wildland Fire Information System (CWFIS). Recent improvements to the representation of fire behaviour and fire emissions have been incorporated into the CFS Canadian Forest Fire Emissions Prediction System (CFFEPS). This is a bottom-up system linked to CWFIS in which hourly changes in biomass fuel consumption are parameterized with hourly forecasted meteorology at fire locations. CFFEPS has now also been connected to FireWork. In addition, a plume-rise parameterization based on fire energy thermodynamics is used to define the smoke injection height and the distribution of emissions within a model vertical column. The new system, FireWork-CFFEPS, has been evaluated over North America for July–September 2017 and June–August 2018, both periods when western Canada experienced historical levels of fire activity with poor air quality conditions in several cities as well as other fires affecting northern Canada and Ontario. Forecast results were evaluated against hourly surface measurements for the three pollutant species used to calculate the Canadian Air Quality Health Index (AQHI), namely PM2.5, O3, and NO2, and benchmarked against the operational FireWork system (FireWork-Ops). This comparison shows improved forecast performance and predictive skills for the FireWork-CFFEPS system. Modelled fire plume injection heights from CFFEPS based on fire energy thermodynamics show higher plume injection heights and larger variability. The changes in predicted fire emissions and injection height reduced the consistent over-predictions of PM2.5 and O3 seen in FireWork-Ops. On the other hand, there were minimal fire emission contributions to surface NO2, and results from FireWork-CFFEPS do not degrade NO2 forecast skill compared to the RAQDPS. Model performances statistics are slightly better for Canada than for the U.S., with lower errors and biases. The new system is still unable to capture the hourly variability of the observed values for PM2.5, but it captured the observed hourly variability for O3 concentration adequately. FireWork-CFFEPS also improves upon FireWork-Ops categorical scores for forecasting the occurrence of elevated air pollutant concentrations in terms of false alarm ratio (FAR), and critical success index (CSI).

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The FireWork v2.0 air quality forecast system with biomass burning emissions from the Canadian Forest Fire Emissions Prediction System v2.03

Chen¹,

Anderson²,

Pavlovic³

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A 2009 Australia brushfire study examining the means of receiving public health messages found that people over 40 years of age preferred government-funded local radio, local papers, and state/council spokesperson and emergency services. In the same study those under 40 years of age preferred television, local papers, and emergency services (Burns, Robinson, and Smith 2010;Fish et al 2017). Both the San Diego and Australian studies demonstrate that the mode of communication is dependent on the community to which it is given.…”

Section: Surveys Public Perceptionsmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Studies indicate that effective public health messaging must be short and direct with clear actionable directions, should address at-risk populations, and should be released from a trusted institution (Fish et al 2017;Glik 2007;Kolbe and Gilchrist 2009;Lundgren and McMakin 2009;Olsen et al 2014;Rappold et al 2012). Messages that are bidirectional engage the public and can be on different communication channels (Fish et al 2017;Lundgren and McMakin 2009). Clear communication between inter-and intraagencies is also important (Olsen et al 2014).…”

Section: Messaging and Contentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a 2007 San Diego study about smoke, respondents preferred a phone call warning instead of a public service announcement via mass media or no warning (Fish et al 2017;Sugerman et al 2012). A 2009 Australia brushfire study examining the means of receiving public health messages found that people over 40 years of age preferred government-funded local radio, local papers, and state/council spokesperson and emergency services.…”

Section: Surveys Public Perceptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Questions were divided into five categories comprised of demographic data, activity data, air quality notifications, natural hazards, and finally, health questions. These categories and questions were chosen to cover the different aspects of social behavioral studies on wildfire smoke hazards (Fish et al 2017;Künzli et al 2006;Olsen, Toman, and Frederick 2017). Table 3.1 summarizes the question content and the complete questionnaire can be found in the Appendix.…”

Section: Design Of Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Wildfire Smoke: Trends, Challenges, Unknowns, and Human Response

Fowler¹

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I would like to thank Dr. Thad Welch for his gentle soul, most caring heart that provided me strength, and many smiles of encouragement. I would like to thank Dr. Bhaskar Chittoori for your support and pushing me for more. I sincerely thank Dr. Steve Utych for his energetic and fun way of looking at people. I could not have completed such a successful survey without you. I would like to thank all of the professors that I have had the privilege of knowing and have supported my educational experience. My special thanks goes to Chasitity Ellis,

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Climate Change, Wildfires, Heatwaves and Health Impacts in Australia

Borchers

Bowman

Palmer

et al. 2019

Extreme Weather Events and Human Health

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Heat-related extreme events, such as wildfires and heatwaves, have historically imposed a burden on Australian society, and according to rigorous and robust scientific literature, it is expected that there will be increases in frequency, intensity and duration of these types of natural hazards. Within Australia, wildfires and heatwaves are currently responsible for more than 60% of all direct fatalities related to natural hazards, and it is highly likely that this is an underestimation as some health impacts are not routinely quantified (e.g. premature death related to air pollution from wildfire smoke exposure). Deaths attributable to heatwaves and fire smoke pollution are more commonly due to exacerbations of pre-existing health conditions, than to specific direct impacts such as heat stroke. Some groups, such as the elderly, infants and those with pre-existing conditions, tend to be more vulnerable to these impacts. Furthermore, evidence suggests that there are synergistic additional impacts when exposed to high temperature and air pollution, and that probably health impacts are considerably underestimated in the case of some specific groups such as those with occupational chronic exposure to fire smoke. To avoid increases in public health effects, society at all levels needs to increase its adaptive capacity. Measures need to be taken from a planning and management perspective through to community response at a local level, adequately focusing resources to include vulnerable sectors and population groups.

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Effectiveness of public health messaging and communication channels during smoke events: A rapid systematic review

Cited by 53 publications

References 26 publications

The FireWork v2.0 air quality forecast system with biomass burning emissions from the Canadian Forest Fire Emissions Prediction System v2.03

The FireWork v2.0 air quality forecast system with biomass burning emissions from the Canadian Forest Fire Emissions Prediction System v2.03

Wildfire Smoke: Trends, Challenges, Unknowns, and Human Response

Climate Change, Wildfires, Heatwaves and Health Impacts in Australia

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