Agricultural Burning, Air Quality & Community Health

Throughout human history, the burning of crops has been part of agriculture. However, we live in a world with multiple sources of pollution, have longer lifespans, and as population density increases around farmland, this has the potential to impact the wider community.

Today’s post concerns what we know about how agricultural burning affects air quality and the health of surrounding populations. For this post and podcast, I talked to Dr Laura C. Myers, M.D., M.P.H., who is a Research Scientist at Kaiser Permanente Northern California and a pulmonary intensivist in the Diablo Service Area. She obtained her medical degree in 2012 from Harvard Medical School and a Master’s in Public Health in 2018 from Harvard Chan School of Public Health. She completed fellowships in Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine and Patient Quality and Safety at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her research focuses on protecting vulnerable populations with chronic lung disease from the negative health effects of environmental exposures, such as poor air quality and heat. She has special interest in the negative health effects of wildfire smoke and making communities more resilient in the face of a changing climate. She manages a portfolio of funded research projects and is actively implementing interventions at scale within the Kaiser member population.

She has written about the impact of sugarcane burning on population health, and we reviewed the topic of agricultural burning in general. In areas of sugarcane burning in Florida, there is only one EPA monitor, which may be insufficient to provide adequate and timely health warnings for those in the area.

A study out of Southern California noted that in areas of agricultural burning, respiratory symptoms increased in nearby children, especially those with asthma.

For this reason, the California Air Resources Board monitors air quality and helps determine when it is acceptable to burn from a health standpoint, though even small differences can be significant.

I appreciate Dr Myer’s work on how burning outdoors affects human health. It is important to remember that many in our communities live with multiple disadvantages in terms of clean air- whether living in polluted air near roadways, in homes with poor indoor air quality and more. Seemingly small changes in outdoor air pollution can tip people into worsened breathing symptoms that can really hurt quality of life and health, as shown in a study of children with asthma living near areas of agricultural burn in California.

Furthermore, in a time of increasing drought and wildfires, practices like agricultural burning may take on additional risk. It is important that we continue to study how to continue affordable food production while protecting human health.

Regenerative agricultural practices are investigating alternatives to burning for removal of biomass- including improving soil and generating energy. One study compared a host of options for dealing with biomass, including zero burn practices such as converting agricultural residue into fertilizer or generating biochar through a practice called pyrolysis. It found that not only could you evert all the harmful pollution, you could actually sequester carbon and reduce the greenhouse gas impact while improving soil health.

So what can you do?

Where possible, encourage your community to support farmers in alternatives to biomass burning through regenerative agricultural practices. Many agricultural universities across the US are studying this, and supporting up front costs for farmers may help improve their soil, profit margins and keep surrounding communities healthier.

Make sure you have clean air indoors- no smoking, vaping, open flames, etc. You can learn more from the “Clean Air Gift Guide” episode from earlier this season.

Spread the word about the importance of clean air indoors- reducing pollution from gas stoves, ensuring good air filtration and more can help improve resilience when agricultural burning is occurring.