Associations of Fire Smoke and Other Pollutants With Incident Rheumatoid Arthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis-Associated Interstitial Lung Disease.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether pollutants such as fire smoke-related particulate matter <2.5 μm (PM) are associated with incident rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and RA-associated interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD).

Methods: This patient-control study used Veterans Affairs (VA) data from October 1, 2009, to December 31, 2018.

Tracking Progress Toward Urban Nature Targets Using Landcover and Vegetation Indices: A Global Study for the 96 C40 Cities.

Access to urban natural space, including blue and greenspace, is associated with improved health. In 2021, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group set 2030 Urban Nature Declaration (UND) targets: "Quality Total Cover" (30% green area within each city) and "Equitable Spatial Distribution" (70% of the population living close to natural space). We evaluate progress toward these targets in the 96 C40 cities using globally available, high-resolution data sets for landcover and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI).

Public Health Benefits From Improved Identification of Severe Air Pollution Events With Geostationary Satellite Data.

Despite improvements in ambient air quality in the US in recent decades, many people still experience unhealthy levels of pollution. At present, national-level alert-day identification relies predominately on surface monitor networks and forecasters. Satellite-based estimates of surface air quality have rapidly advanced and have the capability to inform exposure-reducing actions to protect public health.

COVID-19 perturbation on US air quality and human health impact assessment.

The COVID-19 stay-at-home orders issued in the United States caused significant reductions in traffic and economic activities. To understand the pandemic's perturbations on US emissions and impacts on urban air quality, we developed near-real-time bottom-up emission inventories based on publicly available energy and economic datasets, simulated the emission changes in a chemical transport model, and evaluated air quality impacts against various observations. The COVID-19 pandemic affected US emissions across broad-based energy and economic sectors and the impacts persisted to 2021.

Nowcasting Applications of Geostationary Satellite Hourly Surface PM Data.

The mass concentration of fine particulate matter (PM; diameters less than 2.5 μm) estimated from geostationary satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD) data can supplement the network of ground monitors with high temporal (hourly) resolution. Estimates of PM over the United States (US) were derived from NOAA's operational geostationary satellites Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) AOD data using a geographically weighted regression with hourly and daily temporal resolution.

Differential Cardiopulmonary Health Impacts of Local and Long-Range Transport of Wildfire Smoke.

We estimated cardiopulmonary morbidity and mortality associated with wildfire smoke (WFS) fine particulate matter (PM) in the Front Range of Colorado from 2010 to 2015. To estimate WFS PM, we developed a daily kriged PM surface at a 15  × 15 km resolution based on the Environmental Protection Agency Air Quality System monitors for the western United States; we subtracted out local seasonal-average PM of nonsmoky days, identified using satellite-based smoke plume estimates, from the local daily estimated PM if smoke was identified by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Hazard Mapping System. We implemented time-stratified case-crossover analyses to estimate the effect of a 10 µg/m increase in WFS PM with cardiopulmonary hospitalizations and deaths using single and distributed lag models for lags 0-5 and distinct annual impacts based on local and long-range smoke during 2012, and long-range transport of smoke in 2015.

Quantifying the Health Benefits of Face Masks and Respirators to Mitigate Exposure to Severe Air Pollution.

Familiarity with the use of face coverings to reduce the risk of respiratory disease has increased during the coronavirus pandemic; however, recommendations for their use outside of the pandemic remains limited. Here, we develop a modeling framework to quantify the potential health benefits of wearing a face covering or respirator to mitigate exposure to particulate air pollution. This framework accounts for the wide range of available face coverings and respirators, fit factors and efficacy, air pollution characteristics, and exposure-response data.

Estimated Mortality and Morbidity Attributable to Smoke Plumes in the United States: Not Just a Western US Problem.

As anthropogenic emissions continue to decline and emissions from landscape (wild, prescribed, and agricultural) fires increase across the coming century, the relative importance of landscape-fire smoke on air quality and health in the United States (US) will increase. Landscape fires are a large source of fine particulate matter (PM), which has known negative impacts on human health. The seasonal and spatial distribution, particle composition, and co-emitted species in landscape-fire emissions are different from anthropogenic sources of PM.

Exposure to Particulate Matter and Estimation of Volatile Organic Compounds across Wildland Firefighter Job Tasks.

Wildland firefighters are exposed to smoke-containing particulate matter (PM) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) while suppressing wildfires. From 2015 to 2017, the U.S.

Associations Between Wildfire-Related PM and Intensive Care Unit Admissions in the United States, 2006-2015.

Wildfire smoke is a growing public health concern in the United States. Numerous studies have documented associations between ambient smoke exposure and severe patient outcomes for single-fire seasons or limited geographic regions. However, there are few national-scale health studies of wildfire smoke in the United States, few studies investigating Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admissions as an outcome, and few specifically framed around hospital operations.

Hazardous Air Pollutants in Fresh and Aged Western US Wildfire Smoke and Implications for Long-Term Exposure.

Wildfires have a significant adverse impact on air quality in the United States (US). To understand the potential health impacts of wildfire smoke, many epidemiology studies rely on concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM) as a smoke tracer. However, there are many gas-phase hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that are also present in wildfire smoke plumes.

The association between wildfire smoke exposure and asthma-specific medical care utilization in Oregon during the 2013 wildfire season.

Wildfire smoke (WFS) increases the risk of respiratory hospitalizations. We evaluated the association between WFS and asthma healthcare utilization (AHCU) during the 2013 wildfire season in Oregon. WFS particulate matter ≤ 2.

Impact of Wildfire Smoke on Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes in Colorado, 2007-2015.

Colorado is regularly impacted by long-range transport of wildfire smoke from upwind regions. This smoke is a major source of ambient PM. Maternal exposure to total PM during pregnancy has been linked to decreased birth weight and other adverse outcomes, although the impact of wildfire smoke contribution has only recently been investigated.

Contribution of Wildland-Fire Smoke to US PM and Its Influence on Recent Trends.

Seasonal-mean concentrations of particulate matter with diameters smaller than 2.5 μm (PM) have been decreasing across the United States (US) for several decades, with large reductions in spring and summer in the eastern US. In contrast, summertime-mean PM in the western US has not significantly decreased.