Health benefits and costs of filtration interventions that reduce indoor exposure to PM2.5 during wildfires

Fisk, W. J.; Chan, W. R.

doi:10.1111/ina.12285

Title: Health benefits and costs of filtration interventions that reduce indoor exposure to PM2.5 during wildfires

Journal Article · Thu Feb 04 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Indoor Air

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/ina.12285· OSTI ID:1436334

Fisk, W. J. ^[1]; Chan, W. R. ^[1]

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Indoor Environment Group

Increases in hospital admissions and deaths are associated with increases in outdoor air particles during wildfires. This paper estimates the health benefits expected if interventions had improved particle filtration in homes in Southern California during a 10-day period of wildfire smoke exposure. Economic benefits and intervention costs are also estimated. The six interventions implemented in all affected houses are projected to prevent 11% to 63% of the hospital admissions and 7% to 39% of the deaths attributable to wildfire particles. The fraction of the population with an admission attributable to wildfire smoke is small, thus, the costs of interventions in all homes far exceeds the economic benefits of reduced hospital admissions. However, the estimated economic value of the prevented deaths exceed or far exceed intervention costs for interventions that do not use portable air cleaners. For the interventions with portable air cleaner use, mortality-related economic benefits exceed intervention costs as long as the cost of the air cleaners, which have a multi-year life, are not attributed to the short wildfire period. Finally, cost effectiveness is improved by intervening only in the homes of the elderly who experience most of the health effects of particles from wildfires.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USEPA

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; DW-89-92337001; DE‐AC02‐05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1436334

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1400541

Journal Information:: Indoor Air, Vol. 27, Issue 1; ISSN 0905-6947

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 50 works

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Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Emergency Department Visits Associated With Wildfire Smoke Exposure in California in 2015 Wettstein, Zachary S.; Hoshiko, Sumi; Fahimi, Jahan Journal of the American Heart Association, Vol. 7, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.117.007492	journal	April 2018
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