She Studied the Health Effects of Wildfires, Until the E.P.A. Cut Her Grant

New York Times - WorldCenter-LeftEN 3 min read 100% complete by Interview by Carl ZimmerDecember 27, 2025 at 05:19 PM

AI Summary

medium article 3 min

Marina Vance, a researcher at the University of Colorado, had her EPA grant of $549,000 cut after the agency deemed her research "no longer consistent" with its priorities. Vance's work focused on studying the impact of wildfire smoke on indoor air quality and developing affordable interventions for homeowners to mitigate the health effects. Inspired by the prevalence of wildfires near her new home in Colorado, Vance aimed to measure particulate matter inside homes during wildfire events. The goal was to understand how different particle sizes penetrate homes and to develop solutions like portable air cleaners. The three-year grant, intended to run until August 2026, was cut after Vance had already recruited a Ph.D. student for the project.

Key Entities & Roles

Key Player Opposition Context

Flatiron Mountains 30% Virginia 40% Brazil ×250% University of Colorado 60% Virginia Tech 60% Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) ×280% Marina Vance ×390%

Keywords

wildfires 100% air quality 80% research grant 70% epa 60% particulate matter 60% health effects 60% smoke 50% indoor air 50% funding cuts 50%

Sentiment Analysis

Very Negative

Score: -0.60

Source Transparency

Source

New York Times - World

Political Lean

Center-Left (-0.30)

Far LeftCenterFar Right

Classification Confidence

90%

Geographic Perspective

Brazil

This article was automatically classified using rule-based analysis. The political bias score ranges from -1 (far left) to +1 (far right).

Topic Connections

Explore how the topics in this article connect to other news stories

No topic relationship data available yet. This graph will appear once topic relationships have been computed.

wildfires air quality research grant epa particulate matter health effects smoke indoor air funding cuts

Explore Full Topic Graph