Dataset Information

The Impacts of Prescribed Fire on PM2.5 Air Quality and Human Health: Application to Asthma-Related Emergency Room Visits in Georgia, USA.

ABSTRACT: Short-term exposure to fire smoke, especially particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5), is associated with adverse health effects. In order to quantify the impact of prescribed burning on human health, a general health impact function was used with exposure fields of PM2.5 from prescribed burning in Georgia, USA, during the burn seasons of 2015 to 2018, generated using a data fusion method. A method was developed to identify the days and areas when and where the prescribed burning had a major impact on local air quality to explore the relationship between prescribed burning and acute health effects. The results showed strong spatial and temporal variations in prescribed burning impacts. April 2018 exhibited a larger estimated daily health impact with more burned areas compared to Aprils in previous years, likely due to an extended burn season resulting from the need to burn more areas in Georgia. There were an estimated 145 emergency room (ER) visits in Georgia for asthma due to prescribed burning impacts in 2015 during the burn season, and this number increased by about 18% in 2018. Although southwestern, central, and east-central Georgia had large fire impacts on air quality, the absolute number of estimated ER asthma visits resulting from burn impacts was small in these regions compared to metropolitan areas where the population density is higher. Metro-Atlanta had the largest estimated prescribed burn-related asthma ER visits in Georgia, with an average of about 66 during the reporting years.

SUBMITTER: Huang R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6651061 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The Impacts of Prescribed Fire on PM2.5 Air Quality and Human Health: Application to Asthma-Related Emergency Room Visits in Georgia, USA.

Huang Ran R Hu Yongtao Y Russell Armistead G AG Mulholland James A JA Odman M Talat MT

International journal of environmental research and public health 20190629 13

Short-term exposure to fire smoke, especially particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5), is associated with adverse health effects. In order to quantify the impact of prescribed burning on human health, a general health impact function was used with exposure fields of PM2.5 from prescribed burning in Georgia, USA, during the burn seasons of 2015 to 2018, generated using a data fusion method. A method was developed to identify the days and area ...[more]

PMID: 31261860

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Project description:BackgroundAssociations between pediatric emergency department (ED) visits and ambient concentrations of particulate matter ? 2.5 ?m in diameter (PM2.5) have been reported in previous studies, although few were performed in nonmetropolitan areas.ObjectiveWe estimated associations between daily PM2.5 concentrations, using a two-stage model that included land use parameters and satellite aerosol optical depth measurements at 1-km resolution, and ED visits for six pediatric conditions in the U.S. state of Georgia by urbanicity classification.MethodsWe obtained pediatric ED visits geocoded to residential ZIP codes for visits with nonmissing PM2.5 estimates and admission dates during 1 January 2002-30 June 2010 for 2- to 18-year-olds for asthma or wheeze (n = 189,816), and for 0- to 18-year-olds for bronchitis (n = 76,243), chronic sinusitis (n = 15,745), otitis media (n = 237,833), pneumonia (n = 52,946), and upper respiratory infections (n = 414,556). Daily ZIP code-level estimates of 24-hr average PM2.5 were calculated by averaging concentrations within ZIP code boundaries. We used time-stratified case-crossover models stratified on ZIP code, year, and month to estimate odds ratios (ORs) between ED visits and same-day and previous-day PM2.5 concentrations at the ZIP code level, and we investigated effect modification by county-level urbanicity.ResultsA 10-?g/m3 increase in same-day PM2.5 concentrations was associated with ED visits for asthma or wheeze (OR = 1.013; 95% CI: 1.003, 1.023) and upper respiratory infections (OR = 1.015; 95% CI: 1.008, 1.022); associations with previous-day PM2.5 concentrations were lower. Differences in the association estimates across levels of urbanicity were not statistically significant.ConclusionPediatric ED visits for asthma or wheeze and for upper respiratory infections were associated with PM2.5 concentrations in Georgia.CitationStrickland MJ, Hao H, Hu X, Chang HH, Darrow LA, Liu Y. 2016. Pediatric emergency visits and short-term changes in PM2.5 concentrations in the U.S. state of Georgia. Environ Health Perspect 124:690-696;?http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1509856.

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Dataset Information

The Impacts of Prescribed Fire on PM2.5 Air Quality and Human Health: Application to Asthma-Related Emergency Room Visits in Georgia, USA.

Publications

The Impacts of Prescribed Fire on PM<sub>2.5</sub> Air Quality and Human Health: Application to Asthma-Related Emergency Room Visits in Georgia, USA.

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