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. 2023 Jul;33(4):663-669.
doi: 10.1038/s41370-023-00531-3. Epub 2023 Mar 6.

Large-scale agricultural burning and cardiorespiratory emergency department visits in the U.S. state of Kansas

Audrey F Pennington  1 , Ambarish Vaidyanathan  2 , Farah S Ahmed  3 , Arie Manangan  2 , Maria C Mirabelli  4 , Kanta Devi Sircar  4   5 , Fuyuen Yip  5   6 , W Dana Flanders  4   7
Affiliations

Large-scale agricultural burning and cardiorespiratory emergency department visits in the U.S. state of Kansas

Audrey F Pennington et al. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2023 Jul.

Abstract

Background: Prescribed agricultural burning is a common land management practice, but little is known about the health effects from the resulting smoke exposure.

Objective: To examine the association between smoke from prescribed burning and cardiorespiratory outcomes in the U.S. state of Kansas.

Methods: We analyzed a zip code-level, daily time series of primary cardiorespiratory emergency department (ED) visits for February-May (months when prescribed burning is common in Kansas) in the years 2009-2011 (n = 109,220). Given limited monitoring data, we formulated a measure of smoke exposure using non-traditional datasets, including fire radiative power and locational attributes from remote sensing data sources. We then assigned a population-weighted potential smoke impact factor (PSIF) to each zip code, based on fire intensity, smoke transport, and fire proximity. We used Poisson generalized linear models to estimate the association between PSIF on the same day and in the past 3 days and asthma, respiratory including asthma, and cardiovascular ED visits.

Results: During the study period, prescribed burning took place on approximately 8 million acres in Kansas. Same-day PSIF was associated with a 7% increase in the rate of asthma ED visits when adjusting for month, year, zip code, meteorology, day of week, holidays, and correlation within zip codes (rate ratio [RR]: 1.07; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.01, 1.13). Same-day PSIF was not associated with a combined outcome of respiratory ED visits (RR [95% CI]: 0.99 [0.97, 1.02]), or cardiovascular ED visits (RR [95% CI]: 1.01 [0.98, 1.04]). There was no consistent association between PSIF during the past 3 days and any of the outcomes.

Significance: These results suggest an association between smoke exposure and asthma ED visits on the same day. Elucidating these associations will help guide public health programs that address population-level exposure to smoke from prescribed burning.

Keywords: Air Pollution; Epidemiology; Health Studies.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Dr. Flanders discloses that he owns a consulting company, Epidemiologic Research & Methods, LLC that does consulting work for clients. He knows of no conflicts with this work.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Quintiles of Potential Smoke Impact Factor (PSIF) levels, Kansas, February – May 2010. The darkest color indicates the highest PSIF quintile; white indicates no data.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Primary respiratory, cardiovascular, and asthma ED visits by month, Kansas 2009 – 2011. Shading identifies visits in February – May that were used in the analysis. Open circles indicate respiratory ED visits, shaded triangles indicate cardiovascular ED visits, and shaded circles indicate asthma ED visits.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Agriculture and Air Quality: Prescribed Burning. 2021. https://www.epa.gov/agriculture/agriculture-and-air-quality#prescribedbu... Accessed June 28, 2021.

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