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An Evaluation of the British Columbia Asthma Monitoring System (BCAMS) and PM(2.5) Exposure Metrics during the 2014 Forest Fire Season

The British Columbia Asthma Monitoring System (BCAMS) tracks forest fire smoke exposure and asthma-related health outcomes, identifying excursions beyond expected daily counts. Weekly reports during the wildfire season support public health and emergency management decision-making. We evaluated BCAM...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: McLean, Kathleen E., Yao, Jiayun, Henderson, Sarah B.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4483726/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26075727
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120606710
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author McLean, Kathleen E.
Yao, Jiayun
Henderson, Sarah B.
author_facet McLean, Kathleen E.
Yao, Jiayun
Henderson, Sarah B.
author_sort McLean, Kathleen E.
collection PubMed
description The British Columbia Asthma Monitoring System (BCAMS) tracks forest fire smoke exposure and asthma-related health outcomes, identifying excursions beyond expected daily counts. Weekly reports during the wildfire season support public health and emergency management decision-making. We evaluated BCAMS by identifying excursions for asthma-related physician visits and dispensations of the reliever medication salbutamol sulfate and examining their corresponding smoke exposures. A disease outbreak detection algorithm identified excursions from 1 July to 31 August 2014. Measured, modeled, and forecasted concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM(2.5)) were used to assess exposure. We assigned PM(2.5) levels to excursions by choosing the highest value within a seven day window centred on the excursion day. Smoky days were defined as those with PM(2.5) levels ≥ 25 µg/m(3). Most excursions (57%–71%) were assigned measured or modeled PM(2.5) concentrations of 10 µg/m(3) or higher. Of the smoky days, 55.8% and 69.8% were associated with at least one excursion for physician visits and salbutamol dispensations, respectively. BCAMS alerted most often when measures of smoke exposure were relatively high. Better performance might be realized by combining asthma-related outcome metrics in a bivariate model.
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spelling pubmed-44837262015-06-30 An Evaluation of the British Columbia Asthma Monitoring System (BCAMS) and PM(2.5) Exposure Metrics during the 2014 Forest Fire Season McLean, Kathleen E. Yao, Jiayun Henderson, Sarah B. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The British Columbia Asthma Monitoring System (BCAMS) tracks forest fire smoke exposure and asthma-related health outcomes, identifying excursions beyond expected daily counts. Weekly reports during the wildfire season support public health and emergency management decision-making. We evaluated BCAMS by identifying excursions for asthma-related physician visits and dispensations of the reliever medication salbutamol sulfate and examining their corresponding smoke exposures. A disease outbreak detection algorithm identified excursions from 1 July to 31 August 2014. Measured, modeled, and forecasted concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM(2.5)) were used to assess exposure. We assigned PM(2.5) levels to excursions by choosing the highest value within a seven day window centred on the excursion day. Smoky days were defined as those with PM(2.5) levels ≥ 25 µg/m(3). Most excursions (57%–71%) were assigned measured or modeled PM(2.5) concentrations of 10 µg/m(3) or higher. Of the smoky days, 55.8% and 69.8% were associated with at least one excursion for physician visits and salbutamol dispensations, respectively. BCAMS alerted most often when measures of smoke exposure were relatively high. Better performance might be realized by combining asthma-related outcome metrics in a bivariate model. MDPI 2015-06-12 2015-06 /pmc/articles/PMC4483726/ /pubmed/26075727 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120606710 Text en © 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
McLean, Kathleen E.
Yao, Jiayun
Henderson, Sarah B.
An Evaluation of the British Columbia Asthma Monitoring System (BCAMS) and PM(2.5) Exposure Metrics during the 2014 Forest Fire Season
title An Evaluation of the British Columbia Asthma Monitoring System (BCAMS) and PM(2.5) Exposure Metrics during the 2014 Forest Fire Season
title_full An Evaluation of the British Columbia Asthma Monitoring System (BCAMS) and PM(2.5) Exposure Metrics during the 2014 Forest Fire Season
title_fullStr An Evaluation of the British Columbia Asthma Monitoring System (BCAMS) and PM(2.5) Exposure Metrics during the 2014 Forest Fire Season
title_full_unstemmed An Evaluation of the British Columbia Asthma Monitoring System (BCAMS) and PM(2.5) Exposure Metrics during the 2014 Forest Fire Season
title_short An Evaluation of the British Columbia Asthma Monitoring System (BCAMS) and PM(2.5) Exposure Metrics during the 2014 Forest Fire Season
title_sort evaluation of the british columbia asthma monitoring system (bcams) and pm(2.5) exposure metrics during the 2014 forest fire season
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4483726/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26075727
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120606710
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