Rutgers Researchers to Investigate How Wildfire Smoke Affects Fertility and Reproductive Health

Strategic Insights -

Rutgers Health professors have received a $4 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to study the effects of wildfire smoke on fertility and reproductive health. Led by Philip Demokritou, a professor of nanoscience and environmental bioengineering, the research program will examine how wildfire smoke exposure affects reproductive outcomes in humans. This is the fourth grant awarded to Rutgers Health researchers in the past year to study the impacts of wildfires on human health.

Key Takeaways:

  • The research program will investigate how wildfire smoke exposure affects fertility and reproductive health, with a focus on understanding the links between specific wildfire exposures and potential reproductive health effects.
  • The team will use a combination of laboratory toxicology, exposure science, and epidemiology to determine how complex mixtures of ultrafine particles, gases, and combustion by-products from wildfires influence reproductive outcomes.
  • The program is a natural extension of ongoing research at the Rutgers Environmental Health Nanoscience and Advanced Materials Center (NAMC) and the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute.
  • The research is multi-institutional, transdisciplinary, and focuses specifically on fertility, a health outcome that has received little attention in wildfire research.
  • Laboratory studies will generate simulated wildfires and assess the physicochemical properties of wildfire particulate matter, while epidemiological studies will examine reproductive outcomes in exposed populations in California.
  • Advanced geospatial-temporal modeling using satellite data will quantify spatio-temporal variations of wildfire exposures.
  • The findings from this program may inform interventions, advisories, and preparedness strategies to ensure that reproductive health is considered alongside respiratory and cardiovascular risks during wildfire events.

Statistics:

  • The $4 million research program is funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
  • The program is a natural extension of ongoing research at the Rutgers Environmental Health Nanoscience and Advanced Materials Center (NAMC) and the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute.
  • The research team includes Philip Demokritou, Henry Rutgers Chair and professor of nanoscience and environmental bioengineering, and Shuo Xiao, an associate professor at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy.
  • The project will involve collaboration with Audrey Gastkins, an associate professor at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health.
  • Laboratory studies will generate simulated wildfires and assess the physicochemical properties of wildfire particulate matter.
  • Epidemiological studies will examine reproductive outcomes in exposed populations in California.
  • Advanced geospatial-temporal modeling using satellite data will quantify spatio-temporal variations of wildfire exposures.

Sources:

  • Rutgers University News (2025)

https://www.rutgers.edu/news/researchers-investigate-how-wildfire-smoke-may-affect-fertility-and-reproductive-health