Since 2017, California has seen a worsening series of fire seasons — with 2020 setting a record of more than 4 million acres burned. Tens of thousands of people have had to flee their homes — in some cases, more than once — and millions have been exposed to some of the worst air quality in the world.
This week on UC Davis LIVE, hear from two UC Davis public health experts who have been studying how fires and smoke affect people, including pregnant moms and infants.
The guests:
- Irva Hertz-Picciotto is the director of the NIH-funded UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center and professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences, UC Davis School of Medicine. Following the 2017 fires in Napa and Sonoma she established the Wildfires and Health: Assessing the Toll in NorthWest California (WHAT-NOW) survey to look at the effects of wildfire on people’s mental and physical health.
- Rebecca Schmidt is an epidemiologist and associate professor in the UC Davis Department of Public Health Sciences. She is leading the B-SAFE survey on how wildfires are affecting pregnant women, new mothers and their babies.