Natural Resources and Society

Chloe Wardropper, an assistant professor of Human Dimensions of Ecosystem Management in the University of Idaho’s Department of Natural Resources and Society, is helping health agencies find new ways to construct messaging about lead contamination in the Silver Valley.

Contamination Communication

U OF I TEAM ASSISTS WITH SILVER VALLEY HEALTH RISK MESSAGES By Ralph Bartholdt

Almost 40 years after Superfund clean-up efforts began for heavy metal contamination in North Idaho’s Silver Valley, officials still worry that many residents and visitors have not gotten the message about the negative health consequences of lead toxicity.

With the help of a research team led by Chloe Wardropper, an assistant professor of Human Dimensions of Ecosystem Management in the University of Idaho’s Department of Natural Resources and Society, health agencies are finding new ways to construct messaging to better target an array of demographics.

“This region of northern Idaho is affected by health disparities – on average, it has an older population and worse health outcomes are documented here,” Wardropper said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1983 designated a 21-square-mile area around the Silver Valley’s Bunker Hill lead smelter as a Superfund site. Since then, mining companies have paid $700 million for the cleanup that included replacing soil and sod in 7,000 residential yards, capping boat launches and cleaning the nearby South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River.

But many Silver Valley residents have not taken actions to reduce health risks associated with exposure to heavy metal contamination resulting from the valley’s mining industry, Wardropper said, and new residents and visitors are often not aware of the potential hazards.

Using a hands-on approach that includes door-to-door surveys in communities such as Kellogg and Pinehurst — which were most affected by contamination — Wardropper and her team are

Officials still worry that many residents and visitors have not gotten the message about the negative health consequences of lead toxicity.

developing ways to better communicate health risks associated with lead contamination to residents who may not realize the threats, or don’t engage in protective behaviors such as hand washing, or avoiding contaminated areas.

As part of their work, Wardropper’s fivemember team is studying signage that state and federal agencies have used for decades to relay the health dangers caused by heavy metal exposure. The team assesses how people respond to the messages — and the messenger.

Andy Helkey, who has spearheaded Panhandle Health’s educational efforts in the valley for more than a decade, said Wardropper’s work has helped his agency better understand regional perceptions of the area’s contamination and health dangers.

“It gives us an idea of where we can target the message better,” Helkey said.

Dan McCracken, regional administrator for Department of Environmental Quality who spent much of his career working in the valley, said a strong mining culture and a sense of normalization in the midst of the valley’s contamination has been an impediment to changing the perception of some residents.

“People have to be aware of the health risks associated with being there,” McCracken said.

Wardropper’s findings could help tailor messaging in other places where contamination exists.

“Working landscapes support economies, but they also create pollution,” Wardropper said. “My group is asking what kind of interventions can government and nonprofits do to communicate the health effects of pollution on human bodies?” Visit uidaho.edu/cnr/departments/natural-resources-and-society

Wildfire Smoke Carries Viable Microbes

STUDY SHOWS TRILLIONS RELEASED INTO ATMOSPHERE

The smoke from large wildfires that can be seen from space does more than lower air quality and limit visibility. Wildfire smoke also transports viable bacteria and fungi from plants, woody debris and soils. When Leda Kobziar, a University of Idaho associate professor of wildland fire science in the College of Natural Resources, along with colleagues in Florida collected smoke samples from burning forests in Florida, they discovered that over 80% of the microbes in the smoke were viable. In samples of crown fire smoke collected in Utah with drones, researchers found 60% of microbes were viable.

Kobziar and her colleagues estimated that 40 to more than 100 trillion microbes are released into the atmosphere in smoke for each hectare, about 2.5 acres, burned in low-intensity and higher-intensity, wildfire-like burns, respectively.

“This means that larger fires would be predicted to mobilize even larger numbers of microbes,” Kobziar said.

Results showed that the majority of the microbes were attached to particles or clumped in groups depending on the type of materials, including plants, wood and soils, that were burned.

Researchers also measured the potential for the microbes to enhance the condensation and freezing of water in the lower atmosphere by acting as ice nucleating particles.

If these particles are transported to clouds they could potentially affect precipitation or even form pyrocumulus clouds over high-intensity wildfires, Kobziar said.

The work shows that microbes living on — and in — plants and soils can disperse around the planet, potentially spreading pathogens or toxins or affecting the biological functioning of the places they land.

Kobziar’s studies were part of a collaboration between scientists from the University of Florida, the Desert Research Institute and the Colorado School of Mines.