Wednesday, April 09, 2025

Wildfire recovery: What victims say they need most

New study of wildfire victims finds wide range of needs, including mental health support and health information

University of California - Davis Health

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Kathryn Conlon is an associate professor in the UC Davis Department of Public Health Sciences and senior author of the study.
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Credit: UC Davis Health

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — It’s been three months since the start of a devastating series of wildfires that raged through Los Angeles from Jan. 7 to Jan. 31. As victims pick up the pieces of their lives, a study published in Environmental Research: Health from the UC Davis School of Medicine offers insights into what victims may need in the short and long term.

“Understanding the community needs and impacts that arise during and after wildfires is crucial to identifying the timing, extent and types of assistance that are most needed during response and recovery efforts,” said Kathryn Conlon, an associate professor in the UC Davis Department of Public Health Sciences and senior author of the study.

The data in the new paper is from the WHAT-Now-CA? wildfire study, a survey collected in the aftermath of a series of Northern California wildfires in 2017. These included the Tubbs Fire, which, at the time, was California’s most destructive. It burned 5,700 structures and claimed more than 20 lives.

A total of 2,208 households participated in the survey, with 1,461 reporting their greatest needs. Four major areas of need were identified:

Physical: food, water, shelter, clothing, electricity, internet, gas, money and cell phone service
Clean air: improved air quality and access to masks and air filters
Health: access to health care and mental health care
Information: wildfire status, where to obtain shelter or supplies, the location and well-being of loved ones and insurance paperwork

The survey also identified how needs changed or persisted over time.

Physical needs were the most frequent of all needs, reported both immediately after the fires and at the time of the survey. Housing and financial needs were the most persistent. One in two households had a physical need immediately after the fires.
One in six households reported a health need when taking the survey (usually several months after the fires), but not in the immediate aftermath of the fires.
Over a quarter of the survey respondents reported needing improved air quality, masks and filters immediately after the fires.
General information about the fires was the most requested need immediately after the fires. However, at the time of the survey, respondents were most interested in information about environmental health.

Open-ended questions allowed researchers to identify trends within the four major areas of need.

For example, with information needs, many respondents appeared confused about the role of different local, state and federal agencies (like FEMA), and the distinction between disaster response versus recovery support, potentially hindering their ability to access help.

Mental health needs identified as ‘persistent’

Needs reported for two time periods (during the fire and when taking the survey) were categorized as “persistent.”

Mental health needs were the most predominant health-related need at all time points. Of the 177 households reporting health impacts, the majority were related to mental health.

“Wildfire smoke can put people at risk of short-term and long-term health problems. We also know that unaddressed mental health concerns can have a significant impact on a person’s health and wellbeing,” Conlon said. “Integrating support for mental health and health information should be part of any needs assessments during wildfires.”

According to Conlon, interventions like “psychological first aid” may benefit wildfire survivors. The approach dates to the early 2000s when it emerged as a method of psychological intervention with survivors of disasters and extreme events.

Health impacts of urban wildfires are unknown

Other persistent needs after a wildfire may be harder to fill.

“Respondents want to know the health impacts of urban wildfires and whether it is safe to return to the burn areas,” Conlon said. “When these fires burn, they are not just burning biomass. They are also burning everything in the home. And we don’t know all the health impacts. We still have so much to learn,” Conlon said.

Mira Miles is a project policy analyst in the UC Davis Department of Public Health Sciences and a co-author of the paper. “Wildfire survivors demonstrate resilience and a strong sense of community cohesion, with many participants reporting the desire to support fellow community members in the recovery process,” Miles said. “While this is a remarkable social phenomenon, it is important that we strive to meet community needs as best we can following a disaster.”

Additional authors include Mitchell Snyder and Irva Hertz-Picciotto from the Department of Public Health Sciences, UC Davis School of Medicine.

Funding was provided by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (R21ES029693; P30ES023513).

Resources

Journal

Environmental Research

DOI

10.1088/2752-5309/ad951c

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Household needs among wildfire survivors in the 2017 Northern California wildfires

How is climate change affecting seasonal allergies?

Wiley

A review published in The Laryngoscope indicates that climate change’s effects on pollen seasons and concentrations are contributing to increasing rates of allergic rhinitis, or hay fever.

When investigators assessed research published between 2000 and 2023, they identified 30 studies that reported on the current epidemiological state of allergic rhinitis, described factors related to climate change, and observed how global warming is affecting pollen seasons and allergy symptoms.

Sixteen studies reported longer pollen seasons and/or higher pollen concentrations related to climate change. As an example, total pollen emissions in the U.S. are projected to increase by 16–40% by the end of the century and pollen season length to increase by 19 days. Four studies reported an increase in allergic rhinitis–related health care usage, particularly among low-income residents. Two studies reported that health care professionals want more education on climate change.

“Physicians are uniquely positioned to witness the impact of allergic rhinitis on patient outcomes and can adapt their practice as climate change intensifies,” said corresponding author Alisha R. Pershad, BS, a third-year medical student at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. “As trusted voices in the community, they should leverage their frontline experience to advocate for meaningful change in addressing the climate crisis.”

URL upon publication: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/lary.32124

Additional Information
NOTE: The information contained in this release is protected by copyright. Please include journal attribution in all coverage. For more information or to obtain a PDF of any study, please contact: Sara Henning-Stout, newsroom@wiley.com.

About the Journal
The Laryngoscope has been the leading source of information on advances in the diagnosis and treatment of head and neck disorders since 1896. The Laryngoscope is the first choice among otolaryngologists for publication of their important findings and techniques.

About Wiley     
Wiley is one of the world’s largest publishers and a trusted leader in research and learning. Our industry-leading content, services, platforms, and knowledge networks are tailored to meet the evolving needs of our customers and partners, including researchers, students, instructors, professionals, institutions, and corporations. We empower knowledge-seekers to transform today’s biggest obstacles into tomorrow’s brightest opportunities. For more than two centuries, Wiley has been delivering on its timeless mission to unlock human potential. Visit us at Wiley.com. Follow us on Facebook, X, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Journal

The Laryngoscope

DOI

10.1002/lary.32124

Article Title

How Climate Change Is Impacting Allergic Rhinitis: A Scoping Review

Article Publication Date

9-Apr-2025

Does universal preschool lead to better academic outcomes?

Wiley

Several states, including Georgia, offer state-funded pre-kindergarten programs to students regardless of their family’s income. New research in Economic Inquiry investigates whether such programs offer long-lasting academic benefits to all students.

Using enrollment lottery data from a large school district in metro Atlanta, investigators found that lottery-winning enrollees of school-based pre-kindergarten entered kindergarten more prepared in both math and reading than non-winning peers. Gains tended to fade by the end of kindergarten, however, and some negative achievement effects emerged by grade 4.

Students receiving free-and-reduced-price meals at school seemed to benefit more than other students in grades 1, 2, and 4, suggesting greater benefits from attendance for disadvantaged students. No effects were found regarding discipline while enrollees had one fewer absence each grade after kindergarten.

“Our research shows that Georgia’s Pre-K program gives children a strong start, but the challenge is maintaining those early advantages,” said corresponding author Ishtiaque Fazlul, PhD, of the University of Georgia. “This study reinforces the importance of Pre-K, especially for low-income families, while also showing that we need to think about how to better support students beyond Pre-K.”

URL upon publication: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecin.13288

About the Journal
Published since 1962, Economic Inquiry is a highly regarded scholarly journal in economics publishing articles of general interest across the profession. Quality research that is accessible to a broad range of economists is the primary focus of the journal. Join our long list of prestigious authors, including more than 20 Nobel laureates.

Journal

Economic Inquiry

DOI

10.1111/ecin.13288

Article Title

Assessing the Benefits of Education in Early Childhood: Evidence from a Pre-K Lottery in Georgia

Article Publication Date

9-Apr-2025

RAND survey reveals varied curriculum use and time constraints among public school pre-k teachers

RAND Corporation

According to a new RAND survey, over 80% of public school-based pre-kindergarten (pre-K) teachers use multiple curriculum materials. Some combine materials that focus on a particular domain – such as literacy or numeracy – while others use material that covers many domains at once, and some use both. More than two-thirds reported using materials that they created themselves, often in conjunction with commercial curricula.

Most public school-based pre-K educators surveyed believe their instructional materials are high quality, especially for promoting development in language and literacy, early numeracy, and social and emotional domains.

These are the first findings from the new American Pre-K Teacher Survey, the only nationally representative standing panel of public school-based pre-K teachers in the United States, fielded through RAND’s American Teacher Panel. For this report, researchers surveyed over 1,300 public school pre-K teachers in April and May 2024.

“About 60% of children enrolled in publicly-funded pre-K programs are located in public schools, and there's a growing interest in better understanding how these programs work,” said Anna Shapiro, lead author of the report and an associate policy researcher at RAND, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization. “As states expand public school-based pre-K programs, researchers and policymakers are looking to understand what makes them effective. So we asked part-day and full-day classroom teachers about the curriculum and assessment materials they use, their instructional planning time and access to professional learning to understand the resources public school-based teachers have to support children’s learning.”

The survey sheds light on the differences between full-day and part-day pre-K classrooms in public schools. Less than one-third of pre-K teachers strongly agree that they have sufficient time during contracted hours for tasks supporting instructional delivery, such as planning classroom activities, using assessment data to support student learning and completing administrative tasks. This issue is more acute among part-day teachers, who report less training on instructional materials and inadequate time for instructional planning compared to their full-day peers. Additionally, less than half of the teachers surveyed have dedicated time for coordination across grades or dedicated time for kindergarten transition.

This report is based on research funded by the Gates Foundation.

Other authors of “Instructional Resources in School-Based Pre-K: Findings from the Spring 2024 American Pre-K Teacher Survey” are Elizabeth D. Steiner, Ashley Woo, Jill S. Cannon, Christopher Joseph Doss, Lynn A. Karoly and Emma B. Kassan.

RAND Education and Labor conducts research on early childhood through postsecondary education programs, workforce development, and programs and policies affecting workers, entrepreneurship, financial literacy and decisionmaking.

In addition to participation in school-based extracurricular activities, U.S. adolescents who participate in faith-based or community-based extracurricular activities may be more likely to identify the risks of binge-drinking behavior

PLOS

Scientists from Yale University report that in addition to participation in school-based extracurricular activities, U.S. adolescents who participate in faith-based or community-based extracurricular activities may be more likely to identify the risks of binge-drinking behavior, which could be an important consideration when developing preventions for excessive alcohol consumption.

###

Article URL: https://plos.io/4jHh7Dd

Article Title: Adolescent extracurricular activities and perception of risk of harm from binge drinking

Author Countries: United States

Funding: This study was financially supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) (https://nida.nih.gov) in the form of a "NIDA Helping to End Addiction Long-Term (HEAL)" award (UH3DA050251) received by LF. This study was also financially supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in the form of a "NIDA Diversity Supplement" award (UH3DA050251-031S1) and a grant (K23DA059638) received by KA. This study was also financially supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (https://www.dorisduke.org) in the form of an award (2020145) administered through the Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists at Yale received by KA. This study was also financially supported by the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation (https://medicine.yale.edu/center-clinical-investigation) in the form of "Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program" awards received by C-SFF (KL2TR001862) and KA (UL1TR001863). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Journal

PLOS Mental Health

DOI

10.1371/journal.pmen.0000278

Article Publication Date

9-Apr-2025

Decarbonization improves energy security for most countries, Stanford study finds

Researchers found that shifting to rely less on imported fossil fuels and more on minerals for clean energy technologies can improve energy security for most nations – including the U.S., if it cultivates new trade partners.

Stanford University

A pivot from fossil fuels to clean energy technologies by 2060 would improve energy security and reduce trade risks for most nations, according to an April 9 study in Nature Climate Change.

Lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper, and rare earth minerals are among the prized materials for countries and corporations racing to secure supplies for energy systems that do not add greenhouse gases to our atmosphere. Unlike fossil fuels, natural reserves of these materials are most concentrated in the Global South, shuffling the geopolitics of energy and global trade.

“Most people are focused on the new stuff that could be a problem, and not really considering the security benefits of moving away from fossil fuels,” said Steve Davis, the study’s senior author and a professor of Earth system science in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. “For most countries in a net-zero emissions system in the future, trading off the reduced dependence on imported fossil fuels and increased dependence on these new materials is actually a win for energy security.”

Even for the United States, which has some of the world’s largest fossil fuel reserves but only a sliver of critical mineral deposits, decarbonization could boost energy security, especially if the country cultivates new trade partners, the researchers found.

Since 2020, the U.S. has exported more crude oil and petroleum products than it has imported – but it still imports millions of barrels daily, mostly from Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Colombia. “Generating electricity with solar and wind will require more imports than using abundant gas and coal resources in the U.S., but reduced dependence on foreign oil will be a big advantage as transportation is electrified,” Davis said.

Oil-rich nations including Russia and Saudi Arabia are among the minority of countries that would see energy security decline in net-zero scenarios even with expanded trade networks.

Systematic analysis and a new trade risk index

To reach their conclusions, the scientists systematically analyzed the range of each country’s potential new vulnerabilities under decarbonization relative to those associated with continued reliance on fossil fuels.

As a first step, lead author Jing Cheng, a postdoctoral scholar in Davis’s Sustainable Solutions Lab at Stanford, built a database of countries with reserves of oil, gas, coal, uranium, biofuels, and any of 16 materials that are critical for clean energy technologies, along with the trade flows of these resources between countries.

The researchers calculated how much of these resources would be required to meet energy demand in each of 236 countries in 1,092 different scenarios for reaching net-zero carbon emissions globally by 2060. Modeled by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, the scenarios span a broad range of possible changes to the energy mix across the globe and within individual countries. Some are more dependent on nuclear energy, for example, while others incorporate more solar or wind power.

For the thousands of combinations of trade relationships and resource needs, the team estimated the level of risk in each country’s transportation and electricity sectors, and overall energy system. They quantified these risks using a new “trade risk index” based on the availability of domestic reserves, the share of demand for a given fuel or material met by imports, the economic value of the imports, and a measure of market concentration widely used to quantify energy security.

Countries benefit from deeper cuts to fossil fuel reliance

The researchers found that if all countries maintain their current networks, trade-related risks to energy security would decline on average by 19% in net-zero scenarios. If countries expand their networks and trade with all resource owners, then trade risks on average would fall by half.

Reducing the need for imported virgin materials – whether by making technologies last longer, ramping up recycling, or developing less material-intensive designs – is another way for mineral-poor countries to minimize trade risks while eliminating fossil fuels. According to the study, trade risks fall on average by 17% – and by more than 50% for the U.S. – with a quadrupling of today’s meager recycling rates for critical minerals such as lithium, nickel, and indium.

The authors found a U.S. energy mix made up of approximately 70-75% renewables like solar, wind, and biomass; 15-20% fossil fuels; and 10% nuclear would minimize the country’s trade risks across all the modeled scenarios for reaching net-zero by 2060, although other mixes could offer advantages such as lower costs or less air pollution. Today, the U.S. relies on fossil fuels for about 83% of its energy needs, with nuclear energy and renewables providing roughly equal shares of the remainder.

Compared to solar power, wind stands to deliver greater energy security benefits for the U.S. – at least, with the trade relationships that existed at the time of the study. The materials needed to build turbines in recent years have come from a relatively large number of trade partners, Cheng explained. “However, advancing solar photovoltaic manufacturing technologies with more widely available, lower-grade silicon sources, or expanding trade networks with countries rich in silicon and manganese reserves, could further significantly bolster the nation’s energy security,” she said.

The key, as ever, is to avoid putting all the eggs in one basket. “If you’re importing a large fraction of what you need, that’s a vulnerability. If it’s all from a single other party, there’s a lot of risk that some natural disaster or geopolitical conflict could disrupt that supply,” Davis said. “You want to diversify imports among as many sources as you can.”

The security benefits of diversification have limits, however. The study results indicate that keeping fossil fuels in the mix generally drags down nations’ energy security. “It is ultimately encouraging that most countries’ trade risks decrease in net-zero scenarios,” the authors conclude, “and that the greatest improvements often occur in the countries which most drastically reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.”

Co-authors of the study include Karan Bhuwalka, a research engineer in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability’s Department of Energy Science & Engineering. Bhuwalka is also a staff scientist at the STEER program, a partnership between the SLAC-Stanford Battery Center and the Precourt Institute for Energy that is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Co-author Ken Caldeira is a senior staff scientist emeritus at the Carnegie Institution for Science who is also affiliated with Gates Ventures and a visiting scholar in Davis’s research group in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability’s Department of Earth System Science. Additional co-authors are affiliated with Tsinghua University, Beijing Normal University, and Peking University in Beijing, China.

Co-authors Dan Tong and Qiang Zhang of Tsinghua University were funded by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Journal

Nature Climate Change

DOI

10.1038/s41558-025-02305-1

Article Title

Trade risks to energy security in net-zero emissions energy scenarios

Article Publication Date

9-Apr-2025

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment

Wednesday, April 09, 2025

Wildfire recovery: What victims say they need most

Journal

DOI

Method of Research

Subject of Research

Article Title

How is climate change affecting seasonal allergies?

Journal

DOI

Article Title

Article Publication Date

Does universal preschool lead to better academic outcomes?

Journal

DOI

Article Title

Article Publication Date

RAND survey reveals varied curriculum use and time constraints among public school pre-k teachers

In addition to participation in school-based extracurricular activities, U.S. adolescents who participate in faith-based or community-based extracurricular activities may be more likely to identify the risks of binge-drinking behavior

Journal

DOI

Article Publication Date

Decarbonization improves energy security for most countries, Stanford study finds

Systematic analysis and a new trade risk index

Countries benefit from deeper cuts to fossil fuel reliance

Journal

DOI

Article Title

Article Publication Date

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