Mother Lode Senator’s Fire Bill Passes Latest Obstacle

Courtesy image

Sonora, CA— A Mother Lode State Senator’s bill jumps over one legislative hurdle after being unanimously passed out of the Senate Health Committee today.

Republican Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil says SB 223 is a reintroduction of another wildfire bill, SB 945, which was introduced last year in a package of bills. It would have measured the health impacts of wildfire smoke to protect firefighters and agricultural workers from its health impacts, but was killed by Democrats after she switched political parties, as reported here. The Wildfire Smoke and Health Outcomes Data Act (SB 223) would establish a statewide database to track the health impacts of wildfire smoke.

“Reintroducing SB 223 is my commitment to making sure we as legislators have the data we need to address the health impacts of wildfire smoke and strengthen our approach to wildfire policy,” stated Alvarado-Gil.

According to the California Council of Science and Technology (CCST), California policymakers presently lack the data necessary to assess whether investments in wildfire risk reduction and forest health are benefiting health outcomes for smoke-impacted communities.

“Addressing this issue is long overdue. Wildfires are a fact of life for all Californians, but the recent Southern California fires made it abundantly clear that we need to understand how wildfire smoke affects our health,” said Senator Alvarado-Gil. “We need accurate data to protect our firefighters, agricultural workers, ranchers, and rural communities. This bill is a critical step toward making informed decisions around forest management and public health.”

Alvarado-Gil provided these state requirements for SB 223 that would do the following:

1. Regularly update data products tracking air pollution concentrations from wildfire smoke, population exposure, and cases of adverse health outcomes related to smoke.
2. Expand available smoke data products to include estimates of smoke impacts by individual wildfires. Tracking smoke impacts back to source fires is foundational data for research on the potential human health benefits of alternative forest management strategies.
3. Support efforts to create methodological guidelines for estimating smoke air pollutant concentrations and counts of adverse health impacts attributable to wildfire smoke in order to facilitate future research efforts.
4. Support the development of methodologies to estimate smoke emissions from human-made materials, and should expand smoke emissions inventories to additionally include emissions estimates from developed landscapes that are burned by wildfires.