Ground-Based Measurements of Volatile Organic Compounds in Wildfire Smoke during FIREX-AQ Campaign

Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) was a NOAA/NASA campaign conducted during the summer of 2019 with the objectives of identifying and quantifying wildfire composition, smoke evolution and climate and health impacts of wildfires and agricultural fires in the United States. Ground-based sorbent air sampling was conducted at six stationary locations in the Northwest (Lewiston, Moscow, McCall and Boise, Idaho; Missoula, Montana; Spokane, Washington). In addition, mobile sampling occurred at the Nethker and Williams Flats fires, as well as others in the Northwest. Air samples were analyzed through thermal desorption/gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (TD/GC/MS) for a variety of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to elucidate both composition and health impacts. Benzene found in wildfire smoke was 10-100 times higher compared to background concentrations of nearby sites, depending on smoke sampling conditions. Smoke samples also contained elevated levels of BTEX, pinenes, phenol, terpenes, and hydrocarbons. These pollutants can have long and short term health effects.