Wildland fires, including wildfires, agricultural burns, and prescribed fires, pose significant challenges to air quality and public health. The growing frequency and intensity of wildfires and extended exposure to smoke-related pollutants have intensified these impacts. One obstacle to studying fire smoke is the difficulty in creating datasets that reflect real-world exposures. Smoke from fire degrades air quality across scales and introduces pollutants from the burning of man-made structures, particularly in the WUI. Little is known about the feasibility and effectiveness of policies to reduce smoke and its health impacts, including tradeoffs when considering prescribed burning to mitigate wildfire risk. We encourage interdisciplinary research to measure and predict wildland fire emissions and impacts on air quality and human health, including innovative techniques for exposure estimation, epidemiological studies, assessments of population-level impacts, investigations into novel health outcomes or pollutant types, and analyses of factors that modify vulnerability at individual and community levels.

• A - Atmospheric Sciences
• GC - Global Environmental Change
• NH - Natural Hazards