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Thanks to regulations targeting power plants and motor vehicles, human-caused emissions of particulate matter have been declining in many areas of the US. These regulations usually target aerosols less than 2.5 µm in diameter, called PM2.5, which can travel through the lungs and into the bloodstream, increasing the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. But in the western US, summer levels of PM2.5 have been holding steady—and some years, they’ve increased. Researchers expected the national regulations to lead to improvements in all parts of the country, says Katelyn O’Dell, a graduate student in atmospheric chemistry at Colorado State University. Now she and her colleagues, including group leader Jeffrey Pierce, have tied the persistence of PM2.5 to western wildfires (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2019, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.8b05430). The scientists focused on the Pacific Northwest, where the PM2.5 trend is particularly stark. The team used a combination of atmospheric modeling, air-quality data, and satellite observations of wildfire smoke to make the connection. Wildfire season has been getting longer and more intense in the West, a trend that could intensify due to climate change. O’Dell says researchers need to study the long-term public health effects of wildfire PM2.5 and determine if they are similar to those caused by human-made PM2.5.
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