MWNB

The Healthy Lungs for Heroes Act was introduced by Democratic California Senator Adam Schiff and Republican Utah Senator John Curtis. If passed, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other federal officials would have one year to develop a plan to make “commercially available appropriate respiratory personal protective equipment for wildland firefighters and supporting staff in settings in which smoke exposure surpasses covered permissible exposure limits.”

Data analyzed by the advocacy group Grassroots Wildland Firefighters shows that prescribed fires and other hazardous fuel reduction efforts have fallen by nearly 40% across the West this year.

The tragic Los Angeles fires were a historically destructive disaster, but they also presented a unique opportunity to study the toxic exposures faced by firefighters. New findings point to a heightened risk for serious diseases like lupus.

A new national survey by the Urban Indian Health Institute is working to reveal how widespread traumatic brain injuries are among Indigenous survivors of domestic and sexual violence.

In January, the world watched in horror as fires marched through multiple Los Angeles neighborhoods, leaving behind blocks of smoldering foundations. A recent report tried to calculate how much it would cost to rebuild the structures lost to better withstand the next blaze.

Wildfires have grown substantially in size in recent decades, but they’re also burning much more intensely, with high severity areas growing much faster than fires overall. New research projects additional significant jumps in the scale of wildfires that kill most trees unless major management measures - like prescribed fire - are carried out.

The U.S. Senate version of the Fix our Forests Act (FOFA) is advancing with strong bipartisan support. If signed, it would bring big changes to the country’s approach to wildfires.

Every summer, thousands of wildland firefighters endure months of heavy exposure to smoke and other toxins without respiratory protection. As a troubling picture of the health implications emerges, policies are beginning to change.

The ongoing federal government shutdown is putting crucial food programs – and families that rely on them – at risk.

The American West has seen the number of structures lost in wildfires more than triple in recent decades. But new research shows that home hardening measures can significantly increase a home’s chances of survivability during a wildfire.