Southwestern Wildfires

Smoke Irritation

What You Can Do About Dust and Smoke Irritation

Dust and smoke may irritate healthy people's eyes, nose, throat, and lungs, and might cause more serious problems in sensitive populations. Individuals will not experience the same effects from similar concentrations. In general, the long-term risk from short-term exposures to dust and smoke is low.

• EPA Factsheet

Certain sensitive populations are susceptible to more serious symptoms. These populations include the elderly, children, smokers, or individuals with asthma, other respiratory illnesses, or cardiovascular disease. If you have symptoms of heart or lung disease, including shortness breath, chest tightness, chest pain, palpitations or unusual fatigue, contact your health care provider. If you have heart or lung diseases, make sure you have adequate medication on hand. If you have asthma, be sure to follow your asthma management plan.

To reduce your exposure to the smoke:

• Keep windows and doors closed when particulate matter concentrations are high.
• Use air conditioning.
• Reduce indoor sources of particulate matter (e.g. smoking, cooking, vacuuming, etc.).
• Avoid physical exertion, indoors or outdoors, when particulate matter concentrations are high.

Historical Data

2002 Wildfire Data

Jemez Fires Produce High Particulate Measurements
Elevated measurements were recorded by the LANL Meteorology and Air Quality Group (ENV-MAQ) from 8/26/2002 - 8/27/2002. These were caused primarily by the fires currently burning in the Jemez Mountains. Data from our stations in both communities are shown in Figure 1 (pdf) and Figure 2 (pdf). At the time of collection, the small particle concentrations remained about a factor of 2 above typical concentrations.

Short-term air concentrations exceeded 50 ug/m3 with the majority of the particles being less than 2.5 um in diameter. The EPA standard for 24 hours is 65 ug/m3. Normal concentrations of particulate matter less than 2.5 um are 5-10 um/m3. (Elevated PM-10 concentrations on 8/26 were due to re-suspended soils produced by local high winds.)

For comparison, short-term PM-10 concentrations as high as 1200 ug/m3 were measured in close proximity to the Cerro Grande fire.

Arizona Fires Produce High Particulate Measurements
Elevated measurements were recorded by the LANL Meteorology and Air Quality Group (ENV-MAQ) from 6/19/2002 - 7/3/2002. The elevated measurements were caused primarily by the Arizona fires. The data from our stations in both communities are shown in Figure 3 (pdf) and Figure 4 (pdf). At the time, the small particle concentration were about a factor of 2-3 above concentrations observed prior to the fires.

During the fire, short-term air concentrations exceeded 90 ug/m3 with the majority of the particles being less than 2.5 um in diameter. The EPA standard for 24 hours is 65 ug/m3. Normal concentrations of particulate matter less than 2.5 um are 5-10 um/m3. (Elevated PM-10 concentrations on 6/19 & 6/20 were due to re-suspended soils produced by local high winds.)

For comparison, short-term PM-10 concentrations as high as 1200 ug/m3 were measured in close proximity to the Cerro Grande fire.

Cerro Grande Fire

2000 Cerro Grande Fire

• Impact Summary
• AIRNET Data
• Material Disposal Area (MDA) R
• LANL Publications
• Other Resources