Wildfires are predicted to become more severe and frequent with climate change. Wildfire smoke contains toxic pollutants such as particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5), which has adverse effects to human health. Literature suggests that air pollution health impacts are cumulative, and wildfire PM2.5 exacerbates pre-existing conditions, potentially contributing to increasing environmental health inequalities. Multiple studies have suggested that communities from low-SES and minority backgrounds are more impacted by air pollution than their counterparts but the role of wildfires’ smoke in health inequalities is still unclear. In this study, we assess the environmental implications of wildfires and wildfire PM2.5 by investigating two mechanisms through which wildfire smoke may contribute to health inequalities: differential exposure and differential susceptibility. We use the 2007 San Diego wildfire storm as a case study along with twelve of CalEnviroScreen 3.0’s environmental justice indicators and run linear aggressions against wildfire PM2.5 and respiratory hospitalizations attributable to wildfire PM2.5. We also produce maps for wildfire PM2.5, excess respiratory hospitalizations, and all twelve indicators for spatial analyses. Overall, we found a null or negative correlation between wildfire PM2.5 and environmental indicators suggesting that low SES communities were less exposed to wildfire smoke during this event. However, we found a positive correlation between respiratory hospitalizations and environmental indicators indicating that low SES communities are systematically more impacted. This suggests that wildfire smoke may contribute to exacerbating environmental injustices through a differential susceptibility mechanism. These findings are important in identifying vulnerable populations and helps inform targeted policies during wildfires events.

One of the most common types of evidence forensic investigators find at violent crime scenes is blood. The many useful properties of blood can provide an abundance of information for investigators trying to interpret what happened at a crime scene. The examination and analysis of blood and bloodstain distribution at a crime scene in attempt to determine what occurred during the crime is called bloodstain pattern analysis (BPA). Extensive research on the characteristics of blood, types of bloodstains, and the use of that information for analysis at crime scenes resulted in acceptance of BPA in legal cases. An important component of deducing the sequence of events during a crime includes determining the area-of-origin (AO) of blood spatter. This in turn can approximate the location of persons involved in the crime. Interpretation of blood spatter may prove useful in confirming or refuting the sequence of events and location(s) of suspects and victims during the crime. Bloodstains comprising the impact spatter patterns often have characteristic elliptical shapes, which give insight to their angle of impact and thus the flight path of the bloodstains. The geometric convergence of the trajectories of the blood droplets flight path in an impact spatter are used to approximate the origin in 3-dimentional space. To perform this analysis at a crime scene, investigators would calculate the angle of impact on the bloodstains in a spatter patter, attach strings to them, and pull the strings back at the angle of impact of each bloodstain. This tedious process is repeated until a visible convergence is observed. This method is called the string method. This technique has been generally accepted by experts in Blood Pattern Analysis (BPA) and has successfully been admitted in courtrooms across the country, yet there are some notable disadvantages, most notably, the significant time commitment needed to place the string and document the origin. Emerging Technologies, such as the FARO 3D laser scanners and blood spatter analysis software can improve the quality of documentation of crime scenes and expedite the process of returning the crime scene to public use. In the research, blood spatter patterns were created by striking a pool of synthetic blood with a hammer. The patterns were documented and analyzed using the traditional string method to determine the AO. The FARO FocusS 3D laser scanner was used to scan the spatter pattern and then FARO Scene and FARO Zone 3D were used to calculate the AO. The two methods were compared and the accuracy and efficacy of each were discussed. Impact angles were created on various surfaces to evaluate the accuracy of calculation of impact angle manually and with FARO Zone 3D. The results concluded that the use of FARO Scene and FARO Zone 3D produced the same accuracy of AO calculations and impact angle calculations as manual calculations. The use of the FARO 3D laser scanner was a quicker method of documentation and calculations in FARO Scene and FARO Zone 3D were easier.