Volume 96 Issue 3 | p. 20
Issue Date: January 15, 2018

Periodic graphics: The chemistry of wildfires

Chemical educator and Compound Interest blogger Andy Brunning explains wildfire combustion and its impact on human health and the environment
By Andy Brunning
Department: Science & Technology
Keywords: Environment, wildfire, combustion, particulate matter, ozone
 

To download a pdf of this article, visit cenm.ag/wildfires.  

References used to create this graphic:

Human-started wildfires expand the fire niche across the United States

Chemical composition of wildland fire emissions

Understanding fires

Facts and statistics: Wildfires

Evidence review: Wildfire smoke and public health risk

Wood smoke health effects: A review

Ozone production from wildfires: A critical review

A collaboration between C&EN and Andy Brunning, author of the popular graphics blog Compound Interest

To see more of Brunning’s work, go to compoundchem.com. To see all of C&EN’s Periodic Graphics, visit http://cenm.ag/periodicgraphics.

 
Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright © American Chemical Society
Comments
John Lynch (Tue Jan 16 11:10:34 EST 2018)
How much of this is also true for wood burning stoves, etc? A lot of people I know tend to put a large "night log" on the fire last thing at night and then turn the damper down, so that the fire "ticks over" during the night and is ready to roar back into life easily the next morning, Does this also produce a higher level of relatively toxic emissions?
Reply »
Joey (Tue Feb 20 00:30:52 EST 2018)
This article did a great job of explaining the health problems that come with wildfires including asthma and taught me the difference between the contents of the smoke of something thats smoldering and something that is on fire.
Reply »
Dima Melnik (Sat Mar 03 22:43:58 EST 2018)
This article does a good job explaining why wildfires are bad and should be prevented them.
Reply »

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