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Smoke Exposure

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Wildfires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires

Synonym

Combustion products; Exposure to air toxics; Inhalation

Definition

Smoke is a complex mixture of gases and particles that are emitted from the burning of substances, either natural or man-made.

Smoke contains a large number of chemicals that may cause short-term (acute) and/or long-term (chronic) health effects depending on exposure levels.

Smoke exposure assessment is the process of measuring or estimating the intensity, frequency, and duration of human exposure to a chemical present in smoke.

Introduction

Smoke is a complex mixture of chemicals unique to each fire in both its chemical composition and toxic features. Major combustion by-products produced during combustion of natural fuels include carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (PM) of various size distribution and chemical composition, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including aldehydes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and other organic and inorganic compounds....

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere, Private Bag 1, Aspendale, VIC, Australia

    Fabienne Reisen

Authors
  1. Fabienne Reisen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fabienne Reisen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. United States Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, USA

    Samuel L. Manzello

Section Editor information

  1. Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, Santiago, Chile

    Pedro Reszka

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Reisen, F. (2019). Smoke Exposure. In: Manzello, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Wildfires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_126-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51727-8_126-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51727-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51727-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering

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