Particulate Matter Pollution in New England and the Impacts of Wildfires

New England faces a unique challenge in being impacted by wildfires in distant locations due to the transported air pollution, which contains harmful pollutants and has an impact on human health. This paper analyzed PM 2.5 trends from 23 sensors, focusing on overall trends, seasonal patterns, and comparing urban and rural areas. Multivariate linear regression analyses were conducted with sensor and year as independent variables and one of three measures as dependent variables: 1) the count of Moderate or worse air quality days, 2) the median PM 2.5 value per year, and 3) the interquartile range of PM 2.5 values per year. All linear regression results showed an improvement in PM 2.5 from 2004-2023 in New England. For seasonality, summer and fall experienced the highest amount of poor air quality occurrences. The results also indicate that the summer and fall of 2023 experienced above-average Moderate or worse air quality. This indicates that while overall PM 2.5 has improved for the region, wildfire pollution can create unhealthy air quality conditions. Additionally, there needs to be further characterization and analysis of PM 2.5 to identify and analyze the health impacts of harmful wildfire air pollution.