CDC’s Translational Research Activities Addressing Public Health Impacts of Wildfire Smoke Exposure

Abstract

In recent years, residents of the United States have experienced longer wildfire seasons and increasingly common large and destructive wildfires. Wildfire smoke reduces air quality and affects the health of millions of adults and children, especially those with existing heart and lung conditions. At the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Environmental Health, wildfire-related public health activities include responding to needs of state, territorial, local, and tribal health authorities; improving communication and messaging before, during, and after wildfire events; and conducting translational research to improve our understanding of how wildfire smoke affects public health. For this presentation, we will summarize exposure assessment and epidemiologic research activities about the public health impacts of wildfire smoke currently underway at the National Center for Environmental Health. Ongoing analytic projects address data and knowledge gaps about adverse health effects associated with smoke exposure. For example, analyses of modeled smoke predictions indicate that approximately 90% of the counties in the Western U.S. had at least one smoke event in the past decade. Our analyses of concentration-response functions using data from the 2012 wildfires in Oregon estimated a 8.9% increase in the risk of asthma-related emergency room visits for each 10 µg/m3 increase in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in wildfire smoke. We have also estimated concentration-response profiles for physician visits and medication fills for asthma and other less well-characterized outcomes. Analysis of quick-relief medication fills during the 2015 wildfire season in the western United States indicates that delayed effects of wildfire smoke PM2.5 on medication fills lasted for six days after initial exposure. Taken together, results from analytic projects such as these indicate opportunities for public health action before, during, and after wildfire smoke events.