Composition of Wildfire-Derived Particulate Matter and Impacts on House Dust after A Major Wildfire

The wildfires near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada was the costliest disaster in Canadian history to date, burning over 2000 homes in Fort McMurray and over 1.5 million acres of forest land. Since wildfire smoke has been shown to induce pulmonary oxidative stress and contain gene mutagens, there are significant concerns over the long-term health impacts of exposure to wildfire smoke and residual house dust. In this work, we characterize the chemical composition of the smoke generated from the wildfires, and impacts on indoor house dust. Both fire smoke particulate matter and house dust samples were collected in the area, during and after the wildfire respectively. A high-throughput method was developed to extract polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from house dust. The spatial differences are discussed in this report.M.A.S