Oregon Tech scientists expand study on health effects of air quality.

Scientists at the Oregon Institute of Technology were recently awarded a $1 million grant from the federal government that could lead to research that could improve health outcomes from wildfire smoke in southern Oregon.

Since 2019, a team of Oregon Tech scientists has been studying the capacity of hospitals in the Rogue Valley to treat patients with respiratory problems as air quality in the Rogue Valley declines.

“If you’re in what we call the ‘purple’, which is really bad air quality, there’s a 70 percent chance that a hospital will be overwhelmed,” said Kyle Chapman, associate professor of sociology and public health. He spoke to Oregon Public Broadcasting at the Oregon Institute of Technology.

Chapman and his colleagues are now expanding their focus to include respiratory diseases such as asthma, which can be exacerbated by wildfire smoke, to heart attacks caused by wildfires.

“We feel that some of the other conditions associated with heart disease, which are more prevalent than acute respiratory disease, are a big player here as well,” he said.

Chapman said that looking at how hospital admissions change during wildfires can lead to changes in staffing levels when emergency room visits increase, as they do in the summer.

The federal grant will allow scientists to install new outdoor and indoor monitors that detect chemicals in wildfire smoke in Klamath Falls, Ore. Beyond the woods to threaten homes and businesses.

“Instead of just looking at the mass of smoke in the air… it gives us a clue as to what happened, what was burned in the fire that created the smoke, and how it might have happened.” “Smoke is dangerous to human health,” said Adelaide Clark, a former associate professor of chemistry at the Oregon Institute of Technology who is now on the faculty of Providence College in Providence, RI.

Last year, Klamath Falls had 38 days when air quality was deemed unhealthy for all population groups, tying the 2018 record for the city, according to a newly released report on wildfire smoke trends from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. .