Lancet Paper Addresses How Health Systems Can Prepare For And Cope With Wildfires

Paper: Seasons of smoke and fire: preparing health systems for improved performance before, during, and after wildfires (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S254251962400144X)

As hundreds of wildfires drive the evacuation of communities across the western U.S. and Canada, producing clouds of toxic smoke that pose health risks to millions of people, a new paper is being published by an international team of researchers and policy experts in the Lancet Planetary Health that provides a framework for health system response before, during, and after severe wildfires seasons.

Over eighty countries have now committed to develop low-carbon, sustainable, climate resilient health systems. However, the mobilization of human, political, social, and financial capital required to implement sustainable healthcare is lagging. Most countries have not completed a vulnerability and adaptation assessment, and most medical curricula have still not implemented training on climate change change and air pollution. This leaves health practitioners unsure of how to counsel patients or policymakers with regards to climate-amplified health hazards like wildfires and smoke.

All-hazards assessments are ideal, however these are complex and have most often not been done. We gathered experts in disaster response, emergency medicine, mental health, and smoke research, policy and practice to put forward a comprehensive wildfires-specific framework for health system response to fire and smoke as interim guidance for health leaders who are staring down a season of smoke and fire.

It calls for:

• indoor air quality monitoring in healthcare facilities
• targeting less than 30 mcg/m3 of harmful particulate matter less than 2.5 mcg/m3 in order to protect staff and patient health, and adding extra air filtration as needed. Recognizing that older facilities may not be able to achieve this standard, providing N95 masks for staff and patients who are vulnerable to the effects of smoke as they continue to work towards as low a level of air pollution as can reasonably be achieved.
• integration of mental and physical health considerations before, during and after wildfires.

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