Peat Bog Wildfire Smoke Exposure in Rural North Carolina Is Associated with Cardiopulmonary Emergency Department Visits Assessed through Syndromic Surveillance

• DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1003206
• Publication Date: 2011-06-27T04:00:35Z
• Authors: Ana G. Rappold; Susan L. Stone; Wayne E. Cascio; Lucas M. Neas; Vasu J. Kilaru; Martha Sue Carraway; James J. Szykman; Amy Ising; William E. Cleve; John T. Meredith; Heather Vaughan-B...; Lana Deyneka; Robert B. Devlin
• Keywords: Chronic bronchitis

Background: In June 2008, burning peat deposits produced haze and air pollution far in excess of National Ambient Air Quality Standards, encroaching on rural communities eastern North Carolina. Although the association mortality morbidity with exposure to urban is well established, health effects associated wildfire emissions are less understood.Objective: We investigated cardiorespiratory outcomes population affected by fire.Methods: performed a population-based study using emergency department (ED) visits reported through syndromic surveillance program NC DETECT (North Carolina Disease Event Tracking Epidemiologic Collection Tool). used aerosol optical depth measured satellite determine high-exposure window distinguish counties most impacted dense smoke plume from surrounding referent counties. Poisson log-linear regression 5-day distributed lag was estimate changes cumulative relative risk (RR).Results: exposed counties, significant increases RR for asthma [1.65 (95% confidence interval, 1.25–2.1)], chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [1.73 (1.06–2.83)], pneumonia acute bronchitis [1.59 (1.07–2.34)] were observed. ED cardiopulmonary symptoms [1.23 (1.06–1.43)] heart failure [1.37 (1.01–1.85)] also significantly increased.Conclusions: Satellite data combined assess impacts sparse air-quality monitoring. This first demonstrate both respiratory cardiac after brief smoke.