According to a recently published study, dark, billowing clouds of smoke can carry countless
Smoke contains trillions of bacteria that have never really been considered before in understanding human health. The variety of microbes we've found is truly mind-boggling.
Leda Kobziar, director of wildland fire science at the University of Idaho
According to scientists, smoke from forest fires incurrently accounts for up to half of all fine particle pollution in the western United States. Although there are many studies on the long-term health effects of urban air pollution and the short-term exposure to smoke from forest fires, the long-term effects of fires have been considered.
Scientists believe that some microbes survive andeven thrive in forest fires, when heat scorches the ground and leaves behind a layer of carbon that protects bacteria in the ground. Others survive in the air because forest fire particles can absorb the sun's deadly ultraviolet radiation. There are also disputes that are spread by wind currents caused by fire.
Aerosol germs, spores, or fungal conidiacan travel hundreds of kilometers depending on the behavior of the fire and atmospheric conditions, and eventually settles or is inhaled downwind of the fire.
However, it was difficult to determine which pathogens existed in forest fire smoke.
Scientists suggest taking into account several factors:
- what type of fuel is burning (for example, grass, bushes or trees);
- how much there was initially;
- how strong the fire was (whether the forest was “burnt” or completely turned into ash);
- smoke direction.
As part of the study, scientists using a dronecaptured air samples over Idaho during wildfires in Eastern Washington and Oregon. Even a couple of hundred kilometers from the source of the fire, the content of pathogens - fungi and bacteria - in the smoke was enormous.
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