DANGEROUS AIR��CALIFORNIA NEWSROOM TRAINING�SEPTEMBER 2021

BEFORE WE START …

• Your phones/computers are muted for the presentation

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• The training will be recorded

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• Unmute to ask questions at the end

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• Questions also can be submitted via chat -- please send to “everyone”

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• Please take a second to type your name, organization and email in the chat. We’ll invite you to our project slack channel. Thank you!

PRESENTERS���Alison Saldanha, Data Reporter, NPR’s California Newsroom (alisonsald@pm.me)

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Aaron Glantz, investigations editor, NPR’s California Newsroom aglantz@kqed.org

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Mortgage Bias - September 2021

EMBARGO, USE AND CREDITING

This investigation is embargoed until 12amPT/3am ET Tuesday September 28.

In addition to the data, we will be distributing:

• A national curtain raiser story that you can run on your website, with a credit and link back
• An interactive map that you can embed on your website, either with our story or one you produce with the data
• Flat graphics, photography

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EMBARGO, USE AND CREDITING

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Our reporting team will be available for two ways.

They are also available to coach reporters who want to use the data to explore local or exclusive angles

Mandatory credit to “an analysis of federal satellite imagery by NPR’s California Newsroom and Stanford University’s Environmental Change and Human Outcomes Lab”

Media outlets outside the California Hub, please link back to the landing page for the story: http://kcrw.org/wildfiresmoke

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THREE DATA PRODUCTS

Smoke days (national)

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Hospitalization (California)

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CMS data on Albuterol prescriptions (to find doctors. California)

DANGEROUS AIR

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One of the largest climate change impacts across the western US is wildfire smoke

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And increasingly, it's not just limited to the Western US

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Our analysis shows across America, exposure to wildfire smoke is now worse than it was less than a decade ago.

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The number of days with smoke in the air has dramatically increased

This inevitably is impacting human health as the tiny particles in the air get ingested and impact our bodies, particularly children and elders.

“We know that wildfire smoke is predominantly PM 2.5 And if we look at the PM 2.5 literature just from like general air pollution. It's very clear globally that, the more PM 2.5 You're exposed to overall, you're going to have a shorter life expectancy, you're going to have decreased quality of life.”

-- Dr. Mary Prunicki, Director of Air Pollution & Health Research, Stanford University

QUANTIFYING WILDFIRE SMOKE

Mortgage Bias - September 2021

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• We partnered with Stanford University’s Environmental Change and Human Outcomes Lab to analyze the trend of smoke days over time.
• “Smoke days” are defined as a day with smoke in the air as captured by NOAA satellite imagery.
• These are frequency measure, not intensity measures. .
• The Stanford researchers took the satellite imagery of active fires and smoke across the U.S. and mapped them onto zip codes to analyze how they relate to other hospitalization data
• Zip codes do not exist in many parts of the rural west, hence some missing parts of the map.

Comparing the “before times” to today

Before times 2009-2013

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Current period, 2016-2020

Eight of the ten largest fires in California history have occurred between 2017 and today

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Smoke days across the U.S. in the current period (2016-2020)

Our smoke days map mirrors the real-time movement of wildfire smoke across the U.S.

source: fire.airnow.gov

Smoke days in California (2016-2020)

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Smoke days in California

Smoke days in the Midwest (2016 to 2020)

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WHAT WE FOUND

• We found big increases in smoke in the air not only in California and Oregon but also across the country in Boston and D.C..
• A decade ago, residents who lived with maybe a week or two of smoke exposure, now live for months with smoke in the air every year
• San Jose has seen a 402% rise in average smoke days from 9 days in 2009-2013 to 45 days in 2016-2020
• Los Angeles and San Diego have both seen a 230% rise 9 days to 32 days.
• NYC has seen a 31% increase; DC and Philly 40%

THIS IS UNDOING DECADES OF AIR QUALITY IMPROVEMENT FROM ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION

• There are not enough EPA air monitors for a hyperlocal analysis

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BUT

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• Between 2000 and 2010, the average PM 2.5 concentration levels in the West had declined 35 percent, according to an analysis of EPA data by NPR’s California Newsroom. This past decade, annual average presence of fine particulate matter in the air rose 26 percent.

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FINDING YOUR AREA AND ANALYZING THE DATA

• Link to spreadsheet.

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“When people start experiencing more than a month of smoke days, in a given fire season, I start worrying about more chronic effects. The acute effects, the short term effects are people having to go to the emergency department and some being hospitalized for exacerbations of heart and lung disease. But when there's longer exposure, a greater cumulative exposure, I worry about impact, especially on kids. I worry that, you know, current young children experiencing the combination of bad wildfire smoke and the pandemic are going to have long lasting problems.””

-- Dr. John Balmes, professor at UCSF and Berkeley

HEALTH CARE IMPACTS

Mortgage Bias - September 2021

• We analyzed hospitalization records
• 30,000 more Californians hospitalized for respiratory and cardiac conditions linked to smoke in 2016 compared to 2018 -- the year of the Camp Fire, Woolsey Fire and Thomas Fire
• Break out by hospital region (Ventura/Santa Barbara the worst, ec)
• Link to spreadsheet

FINDING DOCTORS

Use Medicare and Medicaid prescription data to find top prescribers of albuterol, a leading asthma medication

California has seen a 21% growth in medicare claims for Albuterol prescriptions between 2013 and 2018, in absolute numbers it’s more than 240,700 new claims.

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Link to Albuterol spreadsheet

LOCALIZATION ANGLES

• Use the database to identify the worst hit neighborhoods in your region and then combine that with your knowledge of those neighborhoods. Take a look at what is the hospital distribution like? The median incomes there? What are the living conditions? Are they aware of the smoke affecting the air or has it had a more insidious presence.
• You can also use our hospitalizations data and database on prescribers offering Albuterol prescriptions to dig further into the health impacts on the ground backed by data.

WHO TO TALK TO?

• Prof. Marshall Burke, director, Stanford University’s Environmental Change and Human Outcomes Lab, mburke@stanford.edu

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• Researchers studying climate change and environmental health:

Dr. John Balmes, john.balmes@ucsf.edu

Dr. Stephanie Holm, stephaniemholm@berkeley.edu

Dr. Francesca Dominici, fdominic@hsph.harvard.edu

Dr. Mary Prunicki, prunicki@stanford.edu

Dr. Colleen Reid, colleen.reid@colorado.edu

Dr. Rosana Aguilera, r1aguilerabecker@ucsd.edu

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• Pretty much anyone! School children, parents, farmers, ranchers, doctors, athletes, the elderly
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• We are available for two ways!!!

CAVEAT

• While academic research shows the vast increase in smoke across the United States are caused by Western wildfires, there are some localities where the smoke appears to from other causes. There are a few zip codes in Florida, for example, where huge increases in smoke are caused by sugar cane burning.

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• Feel free to check in with us if you have questions about your region

CONTACTS���Alison Saldanha, alisonsald@pm.me,

Aaron Glantz, aglantz@kqed.org