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Mortality associated with wildfire smoke exposure in Washington state, 2006–2017: a case-crossover study

BACKGROUND: Wildfire events are increasing in prevalence in the western United States. Research has found mixed results on the degree to which exposure to wildfire smoke is associated with an increased risk of mortality. METHODS: We tested for an association between exposure to wildfire smoke and no...

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Autores principales: Doubleday, Annie, Schulte, Jill, Sheppard, Lianne, Kadlec, Matt, Dhammapala, Ranil, Fox, Julie, Busch Isaksen, Tania
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6958692/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31931820
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12940-020-0559-2
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author Doubleday, Annie
Schulte, Jill
Sheppard, Lianne
Kadlec, Matt
Dhammapala, Ranil
Fox, Julie
Busch Isaksen, Tania
author_facet Doubleday, Annie
Schulte, Jill
Sheppard, Lianne
Kadlec, Matt
Dhammapala, Ranil
Fox, Julie
Busch Isaksen, Tania
author_sort Doubleday, Annie
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Wildfire events are increasing in prevalence in the western United States. Research has found mixed results on the degree to which exposure to wildfire smoke is associated with an increased risk of mortality. METHODS: We tested for an association between exposure to wildfire smoke and non-traumatic mortality in Washington State, USA. We characterized wildfire smoke days as binary for grid cells based on daily average PM(2.5) concentrations, from June 1 through September 30, 2006–2017. Wildfire smoke days were defined as all days with assigned monitor concentration above a PM(2.5) value of 20.4 μg/m(3), with an additional set of criteria applied to days between 9 and 20.4 μg/m(3). We employed a case-crossover study design using conditional logistic regression and time-stratified referent sampling, controlling for humidex. RESULTS: The odds of all-ages non-traumatic mortality with same-day exposure was 1.0% (95% CI: − 1.0 - 4.0%) greater on wildfire smoke days compared to non-wildfire smoke days, and the previous day’s exposure was associated with a 2.0% (95% CI: 0.0–5.0%) increase. When stratified by cause of mortality, odds of same-day respiratory mortality increased by 9.0% (95% CI: 0.0–18.0%), while the odds of same-day COPD mortality increased by 14.0% (95% CI: 2.0–26.0%). In subgroup analyses, we observed a 35.0% (95% CI: 9.0–67.0%) increase in the odds of same-day respiratory mortality for adults ages 45–64. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests increased odds of mortality in the first few days following wildfire smoke exposure. It is the first to examine this relationship in Washington State and will help inform local and state risk communication efforts and decision-making during future wildfire smoke events.
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spelling pubmed-69586922020-01-17 Mortality associated with wildfire smoke exposure in Washington state, 2006–2017: a case-crossover study Doubleday, Annie Schulte, Jill Sheppard, Lianne Kadlec, Matt Dhammapala, Ranil Fox, Julie Busch Isaksen, Tania Environ Health Research BACKGROUND: Wildfire events are increasing in prevalence in the western United States. Research has found mixed results on the degree to which exposure to wildfire smoke is associated with an increased risk of mortality. METHODS: We tested for an association between exposure to wildfire smoke and non-traumatic mortality in Washington State, USA. We characterized wildfire smoke days as binary for grid cells based on daily average PM(2.5) concentrations, from June 1 through September 30, 2006–2017. Wildfire smoke days were defined as all days with assigned monitor concentration above a PM(2.5) value of 20.4 μg/m(3), with an additional set of criteria applied to days between 9 and 20.4 μg/m(3). We employed a case-crossover study design using conditional logistic regression and time-stratified referent sampling, controlling for humidex. RESULTS: The odds of all-ages non-traumatic mortality with same-day exposure was 1.0% (95% CI: − 1.0 - 4.0%) greater on wildfire smoke days compared to non-wildfire smoke days, and the previous day’s exposure was associated with a 2.0% (95% CI: 0.0–5.0%) increase. When stratified by cause of mortality, odds of same-day respiratory mortality increased by 9.0% (95% CI: 0.0–18.0%), while the odds of same-day COPD mortality increased by 14.0% (95% CI: 2.0–26.0%). In subgroup analyses, we observed a 35.0% (95% CI: 9.0–67.0%) increase in the odds of same-day respiratory mortality for adults ages 45–64. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests increased odds of mortality in the first few days following wildfire smoke exposure. It is the first to examine this relationship in Washington State and will help inform local and state risk communication efforts and decision-making during future wildfire smoke events. BioMed Central 2020-01-13 /pmc/articles/PMC6958692/ /pubmed/31931820 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12940-020-0559-2 Text en © The Author(s). 2020 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Doubleday, Annie
Schulte, Jill
Sheppard, Lianne
Kadlec, Matt
Dhammapala, Ranil
Fox, Julie
Busch Isaksen, Tania
Mortality associated with wildfire smoke exposure in Washington state, 2006–2017: a case-crossover study
title Mortality associated with wildfire smoke exposure in Washington state, 2006–2017: a case-crossover study
title_full Mortality associated with wildfire smoke exposure in Washington state, 2006–2017: a case-crossover study
title_fullStr Mortality associated with wildfire smoke exposure in Washington state, 2006–2017: a case-crossover study
title_full_unstemmed Mortality associated with wildfire smoke exposure in Washington state, 2006–2017: a case-crossover study
title_short Mortality associated with wildfire smoke exposure in Washington state, 2006–2017: a case-crossover study
title_sort mortality associated with wildfire smoke exposure in washington state, 2006–2017: a case-crossover study
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6958692/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31931820
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12940-020-0559-2
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