Rising Ozone From Wildfire Smoke Poses Growing Health Risks For Western Communities

As wildfires turn larger and much predominant crossed nan West, researchers from Colorado, Utah, and California are digging into really fume affects nan air-and our health. 

In a caller study published successful nan diary Atmospheric Environment, nan squad shows that ample wildfires, for illustration those we've seen successful Colorado, Oregon, and California successful caller years, nutrient ample amounts of ozone into nan atmosphere. This not only impacts our lungs and different wellness concerns but besides contributes to nan warming of nan planet. 

CU Denver mathematics professor emeritus Jan Mandel was portion of nan investigation team, which included module from nan University of Utah (UT) and San Jose State University. The study was led by Derek Mallia, a investigation adjunct professor of Atmospheric Sciences astatine UT, who has agelong collaborated pinch Mandel connected wildfire modeling. 

The squad focused connected ample wildfires successful 2020 that affected overmuch of nan Western United States. From Aug. 15-26, 2020, wildfires burned much than 1 cardinal acres crossed 7 bluish California counties, causing $12 cardinal successful damage. Dozens of fires raged elsewhere, including Utah's 90,000-acre East Fork occurrence and Oregon's Lionshead and Beachie Creek fires that burned a mixed 400,000 acres. During that aforesaid time, aggregate aerial value and pollutant alerts were issued successful Colorado arsenic residents dealt pinch smoke-filled skies. 

Mandel developed astir of nan machine codification utilized to exemplary nan wildfire chemic emissions that ended up successful nan atmosphere. He worked alongside Mallia and Adam Kochanski, subordinate professor astatine San Jose State University, some longtime collaborators. 

Wildfires do not emit ozone directly. Wildfire fume contains chemic compounds that respond pinch sunlight to nutrient ozone, often acold from nan occurrence itself. Modeling this requires blase atmospheric chemistry and upwind prediction software, which we integrated pinch our wildfire model." 

Jan Mandel, CU Denver mathematics professor emeritus

The investigation insubstantial concludes that, connected average, nan beingness of wildfire fume increases ozone concentrations by 21 parts per cardinal (ppb). That is connected apical of already precocious ozone levels successful nan West, pushing concentrations beyond the 70-ppb wellness modular group by nan U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

Ozone is simply a wellness hazard. The Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment states that symptoms tin scope from coughing to lung and cardiovascular illness and, successful immoderate cases, premature death. 

Mandel's area of expertise includes applied and computational mathematics, high-performance computing, information assimilation, and wildfire modeling. He has aggregate mathematics degrees from Charles University successful Prague including successful machine science, mathematical models successful economics, and numerical mathematics. Before joining CU Denver successful 1986, Mandel was a elder intelligence astatine Charles University. He has almost 200 published articles and has served connected respective National Science Foundation advisory panels. He besides has provided consulting services to industry, including for nan creation of nan Swedish Grippen pitchy fighter, and developed a computational method utilized successful Japan successful nan study of Fukushima atomic reactors connected nan past fastest supercomputer successful nan world. In 2025, Mandel was named among nan apical 2% of highly cited scientists successful nan world, according to Stanford University and Elsevier.  In 2021, he was rated by research.com among nan apical 1000 mathematics scientists globally and apical 2,000 successful Technology and Engineering. He retired from CU Denver successful 2024 but continues astatine nan assemblage arsenic professor emeritus moving connected NASA-related research. He besides serves arsenic a high-performance computing strategy administrator. 

Other co-authors of nan study see undergraduate student Cambria White and Research Scientist Angel Farguell, who was antecedently a postdoc astatine CU Denver, both from San Jose State University's Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center. The Utah Division of Air Quality, NASA's  FireSense Project, and nan University of Utah's Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy provided backing for nan research.