Forest fire smoke respiratory

Exposure to combustion products from wildland fires causes respiratory irritation and decreased lung function among firefighters. The authors evaluated carbon monoxide (CO) exposures of a group of wildland firefighters who conducted prescribed burns in the southeastern United States of America. A total of 149 person-days of samples were collected using data logging CO monitors. A questionnaire was administered to collect data on job tasks and self-reported smoke exposure. Overall, the highest exposures were seen amongst firefighters assigned to holding and mop-up tasks (geometric mean [GM]: 2...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Exposure to forest fire smoke is episodic, which makes its health effects challenging to study. We review the newest contributions to a growing literature on acute respiratory outcomes. RECENT FINDINGS: Smoke exposure was associated with increases in self-reported symptoms, medication use, outpatient physician visits, emergency room visits, hospital admissions, and mortality. The associations were strongest for the outcomes most specific to asthma...

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BACKGROUND: During the summer of 2003 numerous fires burned in British Columbia, Canada. OBJECTIVES: We examined the associations between respiratory and cardiovascular physician visits and hospital admissions, and three measures of smoke exposure over a 92-day study period (1 July to 30 September 2003). METHODS: A population-based cohort of 281,711 residents was identified from administrative data. Spatially specific daily exposure estimates were assigned to each subject based on total measurements of particulate matter (PM) ≤ 10 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10) from six regulatory tapered element oscillating microbalance (TEOM) air quality monitors, smoke-related PM10 from a CALPUFF dispersion model run for the study, and a SMOKE exposure metric for plumes visible in satellite images...

Population, health, and environment programs are cross-sectoral development initiatives that link conservation, health, and family planning interventions. These programs are generally located in biodiversity hotspots, where population pressure is among the factors contributing to environmental degradation. This review describes the general structure of population, health, and environment programs and provides selected examples to highlight various aspects of this approach. We focus in depth on a case study from the Integrating Population and Health into Forestry Management Agendas program in Nepal that simultaneously addressed deforestation from fuel-wood harvesting, indoor air pollution from wood fires, acute respiratory infections related to smoke inhalation, as well as family planning in communities in Nepal's densely populated forest corridors...

Forest fires burned near the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation in northern California from late August until early November in 1999. The fires generated particulate matter reaching hazardous levels. We assessed the relationship between patients seeking care for six health conditions and PM(10) exposure levels during the 1999 fires and during the corresponding period in 1998 when there were no fires. Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that daily PM(10) levels in 1999 were significant predictors for patients seeking care for asthma, coronary artery disease and headache after controlling for potential risk factors...

Air pollution is a major public health problem in the Amazon forest and in large Brazilian cities. During September of 2005, high concentrations of smoke from biomass burning were observed in the city of Rio Branco. An ecological study was conducted to evaluate the relationship between daily concentrations of particulate matter < 2.5 microm (PM2.5) and the number of respiratory disease (RD)-related emergency room visits. Daily PM2.5 concentrations exceeded recommended air quality limits on 23 days. The incidence of RDs was higher among children < 10 years of age...

Epidemiological studies report an association between exposure to biomass smoke and cardiopulmonary morbidity. The mechanisms for this association are unclear. The aim of the present study was to characterise the acute pulmonary and systemic inflammatory effects of exposure to forest fire smoke. Seasonal forest firefighters (n = 52) were recruited before and/or after a day of fire-fighting. Exposure was assessed by questionnaires and measurement of carbon monoxide levels (used to estimate respirable particulate matter exposure)...

INTRODUCTION: Portugal has had a high rate of forest fires in recent years. Inhaled wood smoke can have short- and long-term effects on the lung function of people exposed to it. STUDY OBJECTIVES: To assess the lung function of active wildland (forest) firefighters. METHODS: Cross-sectional study. A self-questionnaire on personal and work habits was used and spirometry values were obtained using Piko-6 for a 209 people sample. RESULTS: We found a high rate of smoking (42...

Smoke inhalation in burn patients is a serious medical problem around the world. Inhalation injury increases mortality in addition to increasing infections, ventilator-days, and hospital stays. There are also large numbers of patients subjected to smoke inhalation without burns from cooking fires, burning crops and forest fires. The injury results in a fall in arterial oxygenation as a result of airway blockade, increased pulmonary transvascular fluid flux and loss of hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction. The changes in cardiopulmonary function are mediated at least in part by reactive oxygen and nitrogen species...

BACKGROUND: Major forest fires near populated areas during 2003 exacted a huge economic toll on communities in British Columbia. We designed a study to examine associations between PM2.5 and PM10 levels and physician visits in two affected communities. METHODS: Measurements of 24-hour averages of particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) obtained from the monitoring network of the BC Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection were used to define weeks where forest fires resulted in increases in ambient PM...

We investigated the cardiorespiratory health effects of smoke exposure from the 1997 Southeast Asian Forest Fires among persons who were hospitalized in the region of Kuching, Malaysia. We selected admissions to seven hospitals in the Kuching region from a database of all hospital admissions in the state of Sarawak during January 1, 1995 and December 31, 1998. For several cardiorespiratory disease classifications we used Holt-Winters time-series analyses to determine whether the total number of monthly hospitalizations during the forest fire period (August 1 to October 31, 1997), or post-fire period (November 1, 1997 to December 31, 1997) exceeded forecasted estimates established from a historical baseline period of January 1, 1995 to July 31, 1997...

We combined data from a population-based longitudinal survey with satellite measures of aerosol levels to assess the impact of smoke from forest fires that blanketed the Indonesian islands of Kalimantan and Sumatra in late 1997 on adult health. To account for unobserved differences between haze and nonhaze areas, we compared changes in the health of individual respondents. Between 1993 and 1997, individuals who were exposed to haze experienced greater increases in difficulty with activities of daily living than did their counterparts in nonhaze areas...

Economic and cultural considerations underlie the forest clearing by burning that occurs in the Brazilian Amazon region. The prevalence of respiratory diseases markedly increases during the annual burning season. As part of a nongovernmental initiative to reduce forest fires, health professionals received updated training about respiratory diseases aggravated by smoke. The aim of the present study was to describe and evaluate this educational program. A total of 1500 health care professionals received theoretical and practical guidance...

Forest-fire smoke inhaled by humans can cause various health effects. This smoke contains toxic chemicals and naturally occurring radionuclides. In northern New Mexico, a large wildfire occurred in May 2000. Known as the Cerro Grande Fire, it devastated the town of Los Alamos and damaged Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Residents were concerned about the possible dissemination of radionuclides from LANL via smoke from the fire. To evaluate potential health effects of inhaling radionuclides contained in the smoke from the Cerro Grande Fire, it was first necessary to evaluate how much smoke would deposit in the human respiratory tract...

OBJECTIVES: To assess the health effects of exposure to smoke from the fifth largest US wildfire of 1999 and to evaluate whether participation in interventions to reduce smoke exposure prevented adverse lower respiratory tract health effects among residents of the Hoopa Valley National Indian Reservation in northwestern California. DESIGN: Observational study: epidemiologists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention retrospectively reviewed medical records at the local medical center and conducted survey interviews of reservation residents...

OBJECTIVE: Observations have been made on the long-term trends of major air pollutants in Malaysia including nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, the ozone and total suspended particulate matter (particularly PM10), and sulfur dioxide, emitted from industrial and urban areas from early 1970s until late 1998. METHODOLOGY: The data show that the status of atmospheric environment in Malaysia, in particular in highly industrialized areas such as Klang Valley, was determined both by local and transboundary emissions and could be described as haze and non-haze periods...

OBJECTIVE: From late July to the beginning of October 1997, countries of Southeast Asia experienced severe smoke haze pollution from uncontrolled forest fires mainly in the Indonesian states of Kalimantan and Sumatra. In Singapore, the impact of the 1997 haze was felt in the period from the end of August to the first week of November 1997 as a result of prevailing winds. METHODOLOGY: The Ministry of the Environment monitors ambient air quality by a country-wide telemetric air quality monitoring and management network, with 15 stations located throughout the island, linked via a public telephone network to a central control station at the Environment Building...

OBJECTIVE: This paper will describe the impact on the human lung of haze from forest fires in Indonesia based on data collected from different provinces. METHODOLOGY: Data were collected from personal reports from pulmonologists working in the area as well as from province/district health offices and hospitals. RESULTS: These data show that there was a significant impact of haze to the human lung. There was a significant increase in respiratory conditions, lung function complaints and other related impacts...

This study evaluated effects on respiratory health of forest firefighters exposed to high concentrations of smoke during their work shift. This is the first study of cross-shift respiratory effects in forest firefighters conducted on the job. Spirometric measurements and self-administered questionnaire data were collected before and after the 1992 firefighting season. Seventy-six (76) subjects were studied for cross-shift and 53 for cross-season analysis. On average, the cross-season data were collected 77...