As Canada continues to deal with hundreds of wildfires, smoke is blanketing a large area of North America. Western University has the following experts available for comment on the health effects of wildfire smoke, climate change and wildfires, the ecological damage of wildfires, and disaster response and mitigation:
Health effects of wildfire smoke
Dr. Anurag Bhalla
Assistant Professor, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Areas of expertise: Effect of wildfire smoke on asthma, COPD, bronchiectasis, airway infections.
Dr. Anna Gunz
Associate Professor, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Areas of expertise: Health effects of wildfire smoke, health monitoring of climate change, climate change as a health crisis.
Dr. Janet Martin
Associate Professor, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Area of expertise: Long-term health risks of smoke, link between air pollution and dementia, evidence-based medicine.
Dr. Hana Serajeddini
Adjunct Professor, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Areas of expertise: Medical effects of smoke, asthma and asthma management, airway resistance, bronchitis.
Climate change and wildfires
Gordon McBean
Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography and Environment
Areas of expertise: Climate change and wildfires, climate change science and policy, natural hazards-prediction and mitigation, weather and environmental prediction systems.
Katrina Moser
Associate Professor, Chair, Department of Geography and Environment
Areas of expertise: Role of climate change and wildfires, drought, climate warming impact on water resources, environmental change in the Canadian Rockies.
Ecological damage of wildfires
David Goldblum
Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Environment
Areas of expertise: Impacts of wildfires on forests, grasslands and woodland plant communities.
Nicole Redvers
Associate Professor, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western Research Chair and Director of Indigenous Planetary Health
Areas of expertise: Indigenous Health, planetary health, impact of forest fires in Indigenous communities.
Douglas Woolford
Associate Professor, Statistical and Actuarial Sciences
Areas of expertise: Forest and wildland fire science, forest and wildland fire management, fire occurrence prediction, risk assessment and risk modelling.
Disaster response and mitigation
Paul Kovacs
Executive Director, Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction
Areas of expertise: Wildfire-resilient construction, disaster safety and economic policy, disaster resilience and adaptation
MEDIA CONTACTS:
For Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry: Prabhjot Sohal, Media Relations Officer, 519.857.4993 (mobile), psohal5@uwo.ca
For all other departments: Justin Zadorsky, Media Relations Officer, Western University, 226.377.1673 (mobile), jzadorsk@uwo.ca
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