Mortality Estimation Tool

FAQ

Is wildfire smoke bad for me?

Wildfire smoke is made up of many components that can be harmful to your health. One important component is particulate matter 2.5 microns or smaller, called PM_2.5. These particles are so small that they can enter deep into the lung causing adverse health effects. Common symptoms for people breathing air with lots of wildfire smoke include headaches, itchy eyes, scratchy throat, asthma attacks, shortness of breath, cardiovascular impacts, feeling unwell, and in severe cases even death.

What do I do with the data?

The estimates are intended as provisional values until official data are available. The methods allow rapid estimation for early decision making while waiting for official data, which can take months or years. The rapid estimates can support rapid decisions such as emergency declarations and resource deployment, medium term decisions such as grant applications, or long-term policy such as comparison to other hazards. For comparison to other hazards, we recommend looking at the Billion Dollar Disasters database from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and FEMA’s disaster database.

How do I interpret the mortality map?

These death estimates should be interpreted as provisional estimates that can be used until official data become available. The data represent estimates for the overall population, and cannot be used to make any interpretations about specific individuals.

How should I interpret the density map?

The darker colors represent greater concentrations of wildfire smoke at ground level, averaged over 24 hours. The concentrations are estimated by combining current and historic data from ground-level air monitors and satellite observations of wildfire smoke plumes.

Is this the same as AQI?

No. Air Quality Index (AQI) is a tool for communicating the potential health impacts of overall air quality. While AQI and this tool both use 24-hour-average data to communicate potential health impacts of air pollution, this tool only evaluates particulate matter from wildfire smoke, while the overall AQI evaluates total particulate matter regardless of source. The wildfire-smoke dashboard was created specifically because wildfire smoke has been found to be more toxic than general pollution. Visit https://fire.airnow.gov/ for real-time AQI data.

What should I do if there is wildfire smoke in my area?

Information about how to protect yourself and your community are available from the Centers for Disease Control, Environmental Protection Agency, Cornell Public and Ecosystem Health, and your state and local agencies.