Joint Effects of Wildfire Smoke and Extreme Heat on Hospitalizations in California, 2011-2020.

Wildfire smoke and extreme heat events are worsening in California, but their combined health effects are not well understood. This study estimates joint effects of extreme heat and wildfire smoke on hospitalizations in California, 2011-2020. We used a case crossover design with time-stratified controls and conditional logistic regression to estimate these effects at multiplicative and additive scales.

Health and economic cost estimates of short-term total and wildfire PM2.5 exposure on work loss: using the consecutive California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) data 2015-2018.

Instruction: To help determine the health protectiveness of government regulations and policies for air pollutant control for Americans, our study aimed to investigate the health and economic impacts of work loss due to sickness associated with daily all-source and wildfire-specific PM (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 2.5 μm) exposures in California.

Methods: We linked the 2015-2018 California Health Interview Survey respondents' geocoded home addresses to daily PM estimated by satellites and atmospheric modelling simulations and wildfire-related PM from Community Multiscale Air Quality models.

Particulate matter 2.5 (PM) - associated cognitive impairment and morbidity in humans and animal models: a systematic review.

Particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of less than 2.5 µm (PM) is one of the criteria air pollutants that (1) serve as an essential carrier of airborne toxicants arising from combustion-related events including emissions from industries, automobiles, and wildfires and (2) play an important role in transient to long-lasting cognitive dysfunction as well as several other neurological disorders. A systematic review was conducted to address differences in study design and various biochemical and molecular markers employed to elucidate neurological disorders in PM -exposed humans and animal models.

Short-Term total and wildfire fine particulate matter exposure and work loss in California.

Background: Few studies investigated the impact of particulate matter (PM) on some symptom exacerbations that are not perceived as severe enough to search for medical assistance. We aimed to study the association of short-term daily total PM exposure with work loss due to sickness among adults living in California.

Methods: We included 44,544 adult respondents in the workforce from 2015 to 2018 California Health Interview Survey data.

Association of Cardiovascular Disease and Long-Term Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter (PM) in the Southeastern United States.

Unlabelled: There is a well-documented association between ambient fine particulate matter air pollution (PM) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Exposure to PM can cause premature death and harmful and chronic health effects such as heart attack, diabetes, and stroke. The Environmental Protection Agency sets annual PM standards to reduce these negative health effects.

A multi-analysis approach for estimating regional health impacts from the 2017 Northern California wildfires.

Smoke impacts from large wildfires are mounting, and the projection is for more such events in the future as the one experienced October 2017 in Northern California, and subsequently in 2018 and 2020. Further, the evidence is growing about the health impacts from these events which are also difficult to simulate. Therefore, we simulated air quality conditions using a suite of remotely-sensed data, surface observational data, chemical transport modeling with WRF-CMAQ, one data fusion, and three machine learning methods to arrive at datasets useful to air quality and health impact analyses.

Tropical Cyclone Exposures and Risks of Emergency Medicare Hospital Admission for Cardiorespiratory Diseases in 175 Urban United States Counties, 1999-2010.

Background: Although injuries experienced during hurricanes and other tropical cyclones have been relatively well-characterized through traditional surveillance, less is known about tropical cyclones' impacts on noninjury morbidity, which can be triggered through pathways that include psychosocial stress or interruption in medical treatment.

Methods: We investigated daily emergency Medicare hospitalizations (1999-2010) in 180 US counties, drawing on an existing cohort of high-population counties. We classified counties as exposed to tropical cyclones when storm-associated peak sustained winds were ≥21 m/s at the county center; secondary analyses considered other wind thresholds and hazards.

Assessing United States County-Level Exposure for Research on Tropical Cyclones and Human Health.

Background: Tropical cyclone epidemiology can be advanced through exposure assessment methods that are comprehensive and consistent across space and time, as these facilitate multiyear, multistorm studies. Further, an understanding of patterns in and between exposure metrics that are based on specific hazards of the storm can help in designing tropical cyclone epidemiological research.

Objectives: ) Provide an open-source data set for tropical cyclone exposure assessment for epidemiological research; and ) investigate patterns and agreement between county-level assessments of tropical cyclone exposure based on different storm hazards.

The Effects of Social, Personal, and Behavioral Risk Factors and PM on Cardio-Metabolic Disparities in a Cohort of Community Health Center Patients.

(1) Background: Cardio-metabolic diseases (CMD), including cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes, have numerous common individual and environmental risk factors. Yet, few studies to date have considered how these multiple risk factors together affect CMD disparities between Blacks and Whites. (2) Methods: We linked daily fine particulate matter (PM) measures with survey responses of participants in the Southern Community Cohort Study (SCCS).

Downscaling NLDAS-2 daily maximum air temperatures using MODIS land surface temperatures.

We have developed and applied a relatively simple disaggregation scheme that uses spatial patterns of Land Surface Temperature (LST) from MODIS warm-season composites to improve the spatial characterization of daily maximum and minimum air temperatures. This down-scaling model produces qualitatively reasonable 1 km daily maximum and minimum air temperature estimates that reflect urban and coastal features. In a 5-city validation, the model was shown to provide improved daily maximum air temperature estimates in the three coastal cities, compared to 12 km NLDAS-2 (North American Land Data Assimilation System).

Contribution of low-cost sensor measurements to the prediction of PM levels: A case study in Imperial County, California, USA.

Regulatory monitoring networks are often too sparse to support community-scale PM exposure assessment while emerging low-cost sensors have the potential to fill in the gaps. To date, limited studies, if any, have been conducted to utilize low-cost sensor measurements to improve PM prediction with high spatiotemporal resolutions based on statistical models. Imperial County in California is an exemplary region with sparse Air Quality System (AQS) monitors and a community-operated low-cost network entitled Identifying Violations Affecting Neighborhoods (IVAN).

Methods, availability, and applications of PM exposure estimates derived from ground measurements, satellite, and atmospheric models.

Fine particulate matter (PM) is a well-established risk factor for public health. To support both health risk assessment and epidemiological studies, data are needed on spatial and temporal patterns of PM exposures. This review article surveys publicly available exposure datasets for surface PM mass concentrations over the contiguous U.

Compilation and spatio-temporal analysis of publicly available total solar and UV irradiance data in the contiguous United States.

Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the United States, the majority of which is caused by overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) irradiance, which is one component of sunlight. National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program at CDC has collaborated with partners to develop and disseminate county-level daily UV irradiance (2005-2015) and total solar irradiance (1991-2012) data for the contiguous United States. UV irradiance dataset was derived from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), and solar irradiance was extracted from National Solar Radiation Data Base (NSRDB) and SolarAnywhere data.

Development and validation of improved PM models for public health applications using remotely sensed aerosol and meteorological data.

In this study, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) satellite measurements of aerosol optical depth (AOD) from different retrieval algorithms have been correlated with ground measurements of fine particulate matter less than 2.5 μm (PM). Several MODIS AOD products from different satellites (Aqua vs.

Estimating policy-relevant health effects of ambient heat exposures using spatially contiguous reanalysis data.

Background: Regional National Weather Service (NWS) heat advisory criteria in New York State (NYS) were based on frequency of heat events estimated by sparse monitoring data. These may not accurately reflect temperatures at which specific health risks occur in large geographic regions. The objectives of the study were to use spatially resolved temperature data to characterize health risks related to summertime heat exposure and estimate the temperatures at which excessive risk of heat-related adverse health occurs in NYS.

Fine Particulate Matter Pollution and Risk of Community-Acquired Sepsis.

While air pollution has been associated with health complications, its effect on sepsis risk is unknown. We examined the association between fine particulate matter (PM) air pollution and risk of sepsis hospitalization. We analyzed data from the 30,239 community-dwelling adults in the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) cohort linked with satellite-derived measures of PM data.

Reconnoitering the linkage between cardiovascular disease mortality and long-term exposures to outdoor environmental factors in the USA using remotely-sensed data.

This ecological study aimed to assess the association between long-term exposures to outdoor environmental factors and mortality rate from cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a diverse and spatially distributed population from 3,094 counties within the U.S. (n > 3,780,000 CVD deaths) using satellite-derived data of PM concentrations, sunlight, and maximum heat index.

Fine particulate matter and incident coronary heart disease in the REGARDS cohort.

Unlabelled: Chronic exposure to fine particulate matter (PM) is accepted as a causal risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD). However, most of the evidence for this hypothesis is based upon cohort studies in whites, comprised of either only males or females who live in urban areas. It is possible that many estimates of the effect of chronic exposure to PM on risk for CHD do not generalize to more diverse samples.

Investigating the effects of environmental factors on autism spectrum disorder in the USA using remotely sensed data.

This study aimed to assess the association between exposures to outdoor environmental factors and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) prevalence in a diverse and spatially distributed population of 8-year-old children from the USA (n = 2,097,188) using the air quality index (AQI) of the US Environmental Protection Agency as well as satellite-derived data of PM concentrations, sunlight, and maximum heat index. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to determine whether the unhealthy AQI, PM, sunlight, and maximum heat index were related to the odds of ASD prevalence based on gender and race and taking into consideration the confounding factors of smoking and socioeconomic status. The logistic regression odds ratios for ASD per 10% increase in the unhealthy AQI were greater than 1 for all categories, indicating that unhealthy AQI is related to the odds of ASD prevalence.

Fine Particulate Matter (PM) and the Risk of Stroke in the REGARDS Cohort.

Background: Ambient particulate matter has been shown to be associated with declining human health, although the association between fine particulate matter (PM) and stroke is uncertain.

Methods: We utilized satellite-derived measures of PM to examine the association between exposure and stroke in the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study. We used a time-stratified case-crossover design, with exposure lags of 1 day, 2 days, and 3 days.

The association of remotely sensed outdoor fine particulate matter with cancer incidence of respiratory system in the USA.

This study aimed to assess the association between exposure to fine particulate matter (PM) and respiratory system cancer incidence in the US population (n = 295,404,580) using a satellite-derived estimate of PM concentrations. Linear and logistic regression analyses were performed to determine whether PM was related to the odds of respiratory system cancer (RSC) incidence based on gender and race. Positive linear regressions were found between PM concentrations and the age-adjusted RSC incidence rates for all groups (Males, Females, Whites, and Blacks) except for Asians and American Indians.

Heat Maps of Hypertension, Diabetes Mellitus, and Smoking in the Continental United States.

Background: Geographic variations in cardiovascular mortality are substantial, but descriptions of geographic variations in major cardiovascular risk factors have relied on data aggregated to counties. Herein, we provide the first description of geographic variation in the prevalence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and smoking within and across US counties.

Methods And Results: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of baseline risk factor measurements and latitude/longitude of participant residence collected from 2003 to 2007 in the REGARDS study (Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke).

Application of Citizen Science Risk Communication Tools in a Vulnerable Urban Community.

A public participatory geographical information systems (PPGIS) demographic, environmental, socioeconomic, health status portal was developed for the Stambaugh-Elwood (SE) community in Columbus, OH. We hypothesized that soil at SE residences would have metal concentrations above natural background levels. Three aims were developed that allowed testing of this hypothesis.

The public health exposome: a population-based, exposure science approach to health disparities research.

The lack of progress in reducing health disparities suggests that new approaches are needed if we are to achieve meaningful, equitable, and lasting reductions. Current scientific paradigms do not adequately capture the complexity of the relationships between environment, personal health and population level disparities. The public health exposome is presented as a universal exposure tracking framework for integrating complex relationships between exogenous and endogenous exposures across the lifespan from conception to death.