UAA assistant professor works to fill gaps in wildfire smoke research

UAA assistant professor works to fill gaps in wildfire smoke research
Published: May. 3, 2023 at 6:24 PM AKDT|Updated: May. 3, 2023 at 7:16 PM AKDT
Email This Link
Share on Pinterest
Share on LinkedIn

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - University of Alaska Anchorage associate professor Micah Hahn studies the health impacts of climate change. But while searching for data on Alaska, she noticed something when she took closer look.

“When you zoom into Alaska there is a big, black hole, and a lot of times Alaska is sort of left out of these data sets,” Hahn said.

That’s when Hahn decided to fill in the missing information gaps about the impact wildfires have on the health of Alaskans. Utilizing a $1.3 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, Hahn works alongside a team of eight other resources and community members to craft an online tool to help educate communities about wildfire, smoke and the impact it has on residents health. Her project is called “Filling data gaps: Developing a community-centered tool for assessing health impacts of intersecting climate hazards, wildfire smoke exposure, and social disparities in rural tribal and aging communities in Alaska.

Hahn’s work is also helping the development of a robust network for monitoring air quality.

“So that when we have smoky seasons, people know when their is bad air quality, when there’s good air quality, and they can make decisions about when to go outside,” Hahn said.

Poor air quality can impact both physical and mental health, Hahn says. Most wildfires occur during the summer months, when many people are spending time outdoors recreating or working to secure food for the coming seasons.

“Which is a really important time for subsistence harvesting ― of berries, salmon, and as we get into the fall, moose and caribou,” Hahn said. “And so, when we have wildfires and wildfire smoke during that season, it overlaps with hunting. We are definitely seeing that it’s impacting people’s abilities to harvest those resources.”

As climate change continues, Hahn believes the impact will be seen statewide.

“As climate change progresses and we continue to see environmental change in Alaska, we will start to see wildfires occurring where they haven’t traditionally. So, I think it will affect a lot of folks in the state,” Hahn said.

While the project is still in the early phases of development, Hahn said they will start to develop a beta test of the tool by this fall and hope to have a live product within the next few years.