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Peat Bog Wildfire Smoke Exposure in Rural North Carolina Is Associated with Cardio-Pulmonary Emergency Department Visits
Citation:
Rappold, A. Peat Bog Wildfire Smoke Exposure in Rural North Carolina Is Associated with Cardio-Pulmonary Emergency Department Visits. Presented at International Wetlands Conference.
Impact/Purpose:
This is an invited talk on the results from published paper and current work in progress.
Description:
In June 2008 burning deposits of peat produced haze and air pollution far in excess of National Ambient Air Quality Standards, encroaching on rural communities of eastern North Carolina (NC). While the association of mortality and morbidity with exposure to urban air pollution is well established, the health effects associated with exposure to wildfire emissions are less understood. To investigate health effects associated with this fire, we obtained daily emergency department (ED) visits for cardiac and respiratory conditions for eastern NC counties reported through the state-wide syndromic surveillance system. Satellite measured aerosol optical density was used to distinguish counties most impacted by the dense smoke plume from surrounding reference counties. To determine the effects of exposure on cardio-respiratory outcomes in the population affected by the fire Poisson log-linear regression with a five day distributed lag was used to estimate changes in the cumulative relative risk (RR). This is the first population-based health study of peat bog fire exposures utilizing a syndromic surveillance system with a nearly comprehensive record of health outcomes from an entire geographic region. We determined relative risk of cardio-respiratory outcomes cumulative over the lag days 0 through 5 of the exposure to smoke. The study demonstrated that exposure to smoke from the wildfire increased ED visits for asthma, COPD, pneumonia, acute bronchitis and heart failure in a sparsely populated non-urban area. In the exposed counties significant increases in cumulative RR for asthma (1.65(95% confidence interval [1.25, 2.17]), COPD (1.73[1.06, 2.83]), pneumonia and acute bronchitis (1.59[1.07, 2.34]) were observed. ED visits associated with cardiopulmonary symptoms (1.23[1.06, 1.43]) and heart failure (1.37[1.01, 1.85]) were also significantly increased. This is the first study to demonstrate both respiratory and cardiac effects following brief exposure to peat w