How Hospitals Respond to Wildfires
https://eos.org/research-spotlights/how-hospitals-respond-to-wildfires
Excerpt: A new study tracks intensive care unit admissions after periods of wildfire smoke pollution. A prolonged or severe smoke event has the potential to strain hospital resources. Wildfires are becoming worse and more frequent. Massive plumes of smoke—more dangerousthan urban pollution—disperse across entire continents, spreading inhalable particles that can cause smoke-related fatalities and exacerbate a range of medical conditions far from the actual burn site. In a new study, Sorensen et al. compared the concentration of inhalable smoke particles to local hospital intensive care unit (ICU) admissions by ZIP code. They found that an increase in smoke particles in an area was followed 5 days later by a small but measurable bump in ICU admissions. The researchers then simulated a severe, weeklong smoke scenario. In such conditions, ICU admissions increased by a projected 131%—potentially enough to push an ICU past its capacity, especially in smaller hospitals with fewer resources. ...Scientists predict that climate change will bring more frequent and more intense fires. Fortunately, current systems can predict inhalable smoke emissions with fine spatial resolution and up to 2 days in advance. With proper systems in place, hospitals can use that information to allocate resources more efficiently and warn areas far from the burn site and potentially unawareof the danger. (GeoHealth, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GH000385, 2021)....