EHPnet: American Farmland Trust

and a dry, dusty climate where frequent air inversions can cause smoke to linger for days. While McCarthy admits he cannot prove that any particular patient has been injured by the smoke, he says his medical experience is persuasive. For example, he says, patients who travel during the burning season tell him, "As soon as I get out of Spokane, I feel better, and as soon as I get back, I feel worse." The evidence may be anecdotal, McCarthy adds, but "so many have told me this, it's become a reality for me." Roe Roberts, an associate professor of health administration at Eastern Washington University in Spokane, studied the effects of grass-fire smoke in eastern Washington during the mid-1990s. Her research, published in the June 1998 issue of the Journal ofEnviron-mental Health, found that concentrations of smoke particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter correlated with weekend purchases of bronchodilators, which are used to open bronchial airways. Roberts says that because weekend purchases often represent emergency purchases, they provide an indirect measure of the effects of smoke on lung-disease patients. Even some wheat growers recognize the problem. In the July 1999 issue of the trade journal Wheat Life, David Roseberry, past president of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers, wrote, "Evidence affirming the negative consequences of inhaling smoke-all smoke, not just cigarette smoke-has been continuously building to a surprising extent. Department of Ecology spokesman Larry Altose says the department recognizes that "smoke from agricultural fires is causing serious health problems and people are very interested in addressing this issue to bring it under control." The Washington Association of Wheat Growers signed an agreement with the Department of Ecology in February 1999 specifying a 50% decline in burning over seven years. Altose says permits are issued to farmers who show that burning is "necessary according to best management practices." Hoffman says the 50% overall reduction mandated by the agreement will not protect public health because it was based on 1998 figures, when a record amount of acreage was burned. But Altose says the Department of Ecology believes the 50% reduction will make a big difference, especially when coupled with new "best management" practices used by farmers, which discourage the use of fire. "We've already seen burning decrease by 50% this fall," he says.-David J. Tenenbaum