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. 2016 Jun 4;15(1):64.
doi: 10.1186/s12940-016-0146-8.

The association of wildfire smoke with respiratory and cardiovascular emergency department visits in Colorado in 2012: a case crossover study

Breanna L Alman  1 , Gabriele Pfister  2 , Hua Hao  3 , Jennifer Stowell  3 , Xuefei Hu  3 , Yang Liu  3 , Matthew J Strickland  4
Affiliations

The association of wildfire smoke with respiratory and cardiovascular emergency department visits in Colorado in 2012: a case crossover study

Breanna L Alman et al. Environ Health. .

Abstract

Background: In 2012, Colorado experienced one of its worst wildfire seasons of the past decade. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship of local PM2.5 levels, modeled using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model with Chemistry, with emergency department visits and acute hospitalizations for respiratory and cardiovascular outcomes during the 2012 Colorado wildfires.

Methods: Conditional logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between both continuous and categorical PM2.5 and emergency department visits during the wildfire period, from June 5(th) to July 6(th) 2012.

Results: For respiratory outcomes, we observed positive relationships between lag 0 PM2.5 and asthma/wheeze (1 h max OR 1.01, 95 % CI (1.00, 1.01) per 10 μg/m(3); 24 h mean OR 1.04 95 % CI (1.02, 1.06) per 5 μg/m(3)), and COPD (1 h max OR 1.01 95 % CI (1.00, 1.02) per 10 μg/m(3); 24 h mean OR 1.05 95 % CI (1.02, 1.08) per 5 μg/m(3)). These associations were also positive for 2-day and 3-day moving average lag periods. When PM2.5 was modeled as a categorical variable, bronchitis also showed elevated effect estimates over the referent groups for lag 0 24 h average concentration. Cardiovascular results were consistent with no association.

Conclusions: We observed positive associations between PM2.5 from wildfire and respiratory diseases, supporting evidence from previous research that wildfire PM2.5 is an important source for adverse respiratory health outcomes.

Keywords: Cardiovascular; Emergency department visits; PM2.5; Particulate matter; Respiratory; Wildfires.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Spatial variability of PM2.5 24 h average concentrations from June 11th to June 24th
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Concentration response odds ratios for respiratory outcomes for 24-h and 1-h maximum categorical PM2.5
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Concentration response odds ratios for cardiovascular outcomes for 24-h and 1-h maximum categorical PM2.5
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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