Version 1
: Received: 7 June 2024 / Approved: 10 June 2024 / Online: 10 June 2024 (07:53:47 CEST)
How to cite:
Deary, M. E.; Griffiths, S. D. The Impact of Industrial Fires in Urban Settings: Monitoring, Modelling, Health, and Environmental Justice Perspectives. Preprints2024, 2024060550. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202406.0550.v1
Deary, M. E.; Griffiths, S. D. The Impact of Industrial Fires in Urban Settings: Monitoring, Modelling, Health, and Environmental Justice Perspectives. Preprints 2024, 2024060550. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202406.0550.v1
Deary, M. E.; Griffiths, S. D. The Impact of Industrial Fires in Urban Settings: Monitoring, Modelling, Health, and Environmental Justice Perspectives. Preprints2024, 2024060550. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202406.0550.v1
APA Style
Deary, M. E., & Griffiths, S. D. (2024). The Impact of Industrial Fires in Urban Settings: Monitoring, Modelling, Health, and Environmental Justice Perspectives. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202406.0550.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Deary, M. E. and Simon David Griffiths. 2024 "The Impact of Industrial Fires in Urban Settings: Monitoring, Modelling, Health, and Environmental Justice Perspectives" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202406.0550.v1
Abstract
Industrial fires at facilities including waste management sites, warehouses, factories, chemical works and fuel storage depots are relatively frequent occurrences. Often, these fires occur adjacent to urban communities and result in ground-level airborne pollutant concentrations that are well above guideline values. Land, water, livestock and crops may also be contaminated by the emissions and by firefighting activities. Moreover, impacted communities tend to have a higher proportion of minority ethnic populations, individuals with underlying health vulnerabilities, as well as those of lower socio-economic status. Nevertheless, this is an aspect of air quality that is under-researched, and so this review aims to highlight the public health hazards associated with industrial fires and the need for an effective, coordinated, public health response. We also review the range of monitoring techniques that have been utilised in such fires and highlight the role of dispersion modelling in predicting plume trajectories and in estimating population exposure. We recommend establishing 1-h guideline values for particulate matter to facilitate timely public health interventions and we highlight the need to review regulatory and technical controls for sites prone to fires, particularly in the waste sector.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
