Maui Wildfire Exposure Study gets $6M in federal funding to extend post-fire health tracking to 2031

The Maui Wildfire Exposure Study, through the University of Hawaiʻi, has been awarded nearly $6 million to continue and expand. The funding is comprised of two grants coming from the National Institutes of Health and will support Hawaiʻi's largest and most comprehensive disaster health cohort to extend through 2031. It will allow researchers to continue following 2,000 adult participants from Lahaina and Kula, and expand to include 800 keiki. “Children are still developing, so what happens to them after the disaster might shape their health for decades,” said Alika Maunakea, a professor at the John A. Burns School of Medicine and co-principal investigator of the exposure study. “We want to understand how wildfire exposure, displacement, stress, and changes at home can affect their lungs, mental health, development, and education.

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