Effects of fine particulate matter from wildfire and non-wildfire sources on emergency-department visits in people who were housed and unhoused in San Diego County (CA, USA) during 2012-20: a time-stratified case-crossover study.

Background: Being unhoused can increase vulnerability to adverse health effects due to air pollution. We aimed to quantify changes in emergency-department visits during and after exposure to wildfire-specific and non-wildfire particulate matter 2·5 μm or less in diameter (PM) in San Diego County (CA, USA) in people who were both unhoused and housed.

Methods: For this time-stratified case-crossover study, we used data on exposure to wildfire-specific PM in California and individual-level data for people admitted to the emergency departments of two hospitals (UC San Diego Health emergency departments at La Jolla and Hillcrest, San Diego) in San Diego County between July 1, 2012, and Dec 31, 2020.

The health benefits of reducing micro-heat islands: A 22-year analysis of the impact of urban temperature reduction on heat-related illnesses in California's major cities.

This study investigates the relationship between temporal changes in temperatures characterizing local urban heat islands (UHIs) and heat-related illnesses (HRIs) in seven major cities of California. UHIs, which are a phenomenon that arises in the presence of impervious surfaces or the lack of green spaces exacerbate the effects of extreme heat events, can be measured longitudinally using satellite products. The two objectives of this study were: (1) to identify temperature trends in local temperatures to characterize UHIs across zip code tabulation areas (ZCTAs) in the seven observed cities over a 22-year period and (2) to use propensity score and inverse probability weighting to achieve exchangeability between different types of ZCTAs and assess the difference in hospital admissions recorded as HRIs attributable to temporal changes in UHIs.

Measuring long-term exposure to wildfire PM in California: Time-varying inequities in environmental burden.

Wildfires have become more frequent and intense due to climate change and outdoor wildfire fine particulate matter (PM) concentrations differ from relatively smoothly varying total PM. Thus, we introduced a conceptual model for computing long-term wildfire PM and assessed disproportionate exposures among marginalized communities. We used monitoring data and statistical techniques to characterize annual wildfire PM exposure based on intermittent and extreme daily wildfire PM concentrations in California census tracts (2006 to 2020).

The Burden of Wildfire Smoke on Respiratory Health in California at the Zip Code Level: Uncovering the Disproportionate Impacts of Differential Fine Particle Composition.

Wildfires constitute a growing source of extremely high levels of particulate matter that is less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5).

Wildfire smoke knows no borders: Differential vulnerability to smoke effects on cardio-respiratory health in the San Diego-Tijuana region.

Exposure to fine particles in wildfire smoke is deleterious for human health and can increase cases of cardio-respiratory illnesses and related hospitalizations. Neighborhood-level risk factors can increase susceptibility to environmental hazards, such as air pollution from smoke, and the same exposure can lead to different health effects across populations. While the San Diego-Tijuana border can be exposed to the same wildfire smoke event, socio-demographic differences may drive differential effects on population health.

A novel ensemble-based statistical approach to estimate daily wildfire-specific PM in California (2006-2020).

Though fine particulate matter (PM) has decreased in the United States (U.S.) in the past two decades, the increasing frequency, duration, and severity of wildfires significantly (though episodically) impairs air quality in wildfire-prone regions and beyond.

A Perspective on Pediatric Respiratory Outcomes During California Wildfires Due to Smoke and PM Exposure.

As wildfires increase in prevalence and intensity across California and globally, it is anticipated that more children will be exposed to wildfire smoke, and thus face associated adverse health outcomes. Here, we provide a concise summary of the respiratory effects of California's wildfires on pediatric healthcare utilization, examine global examples of wildfire smoke exposure within the pediatric population and associated physiological effects, and assess the efficacy of metrics used to measure and communicate air quality during wildfires within the United States and elsewhere.

The socioeconomic landscape of the exposome during pregnancy.

Background: While socioeconomic position (SEP) is consistently related to pregnancy and birth outcome disparities, relevant biological mechanisms are manifold, thus necessitating more comprehensive characterization of SEP-exposome associations during pregnancy.

Objectives: We implemented an exposomic approach to systematically characterize the socioeconomic landscape of prenatal exposures in a setting where social segregation was less distinct in a hypotheses-generating manner.

Methods: We described the correlation structure of 134 prenatal exogenous and endogenous sources (e.

Hot and cold flavors of southern California's Santa Ana winds: their causes, trends, and links with wildfire.

Unlabelled: Santa Ana winds (SAWs) are associated with anomalous temperatures in coastal Southern California (SoCal). As dry air flows over SoCal's coastal ranges on its way from the elevated Great Basin down to sea level, all SAWs warm adiabatically. Many but not all SAWs produce coastal heat events.

Wildfire particulate matter in Shasta County, California and respiratory and circulatory disease-related emergency department visits and mortality, 2013-2018.

Unlabelled: Wildfire smoke harms health. We add to this literature by evaluating the health effects of California's 2018 Carr Fire and preceding wildfire seasons in Shasta County.

Methods: With data from the Shasta County Health and Human Services Agency, we examined the link between weekly wildfire fine particulate matter (PM) exposure estimated using a spatiotemporal multiple imputation approach and emergency department (ED) visits and mortality using time-series models that controlled for temporal trends and temperature.

Respiratory hospitalizations and wildfire smoke: a spatiotemporal analysis of an extreme firestorm in San Diego County, California.

Unlabelled: Wildfire smoke adversely impacts respiratory health as fine particles can penetrate deeply into the lungs. Epidemiological studies of differential impacts typically target population subgroups in terms of vulnerability to wildfire smoke. Such information is useful to customize smoke warnings and mitigation actions for specific groups of individuals.

Fine Particles in Wildfire Smoke and Pediatric Respiratory Health in California.

Background And Objectives: Exposure to airborne fine particles with diameters ≤2.5 μm (PM) pollution is a well-established cause of respiratory diseases in children; whether wildfire-specific PM causes more damage, however, remains uncertain. We examine the associations between wildfire-specific PM and pediatric respiratory health during the period 2011-2017 in San Diego County, California, and compare these results with other sources of PM.

Wildfire smoke impacts respiratory health more than fine particles from other sources: observational evidence from Southern California.

Wildfires are becoming more frequent and destructive in a changing climate. Fine particulate matter, PM, in wildfire smoke adversely impacts human health. Recent toxicological studies suggest that wildfire particulate matter may be more toxic than equal doses of ambient PM.

Santa Ana Winds of Southern California Impact PM With and Without Smoke From Wildfires.

Fine particulate matter (PM) raises human health concerns since it can deeply penetrate the respiratory system and enter the bloodstream, thus potentially impacting vital organs. Strong winds transport and disperse PM, which can travel over long distances. Smoke from wildfires is a major episodic and seasonal hazard in Southern California (SoCal), where the onset of Santa Ana winds (SAWs) in early fall before the first rains of winter is associated with the region's most damaging wildfires.

Increase in Pediatric Respiratory Visits Associated with Santa Ana Wind-Driven Wildfire Smoke and PM Levels in San Diego County.

There is significant evidence of increased healthcare utilization from cardiopulmonary causes in adults from exposure to wildfire smoke, but evidence in pediatric age groups is limited. To quantify and examine the healthcare utilization effects of the December 2017 Lilac Fire in San Diego County among pediatric patients at the Rady Children's Hospital (RCH) emergency department and urgent care (UC) clinics. Using data from 2011 to 2017, including data on daily particulate matter <2.

Atmospheric rivers impact California's coastal water quality via extreme precipitation.

Precipitation in California is projected to become more volatile: less frequent but more extreme as global warming pushes midlatitude frontal cyclones further poleward while bolstering the atmospheric rivers (ARs), which tend to produce the region's extreme rainfall. Pollutant accumulation and delivery to coastal waters can be expected to increase, as lengthening dry spells will be increasingly punctuated by more extreme precipitation events. Coastal pollution exposes human populations to high levels of fecal bacteria and associated pathogens, which can cause a variety of health impacts.

Linking in-stream nutrient flux to land use and inter-annual hydrological variability at the watershed scale.

The significance of nutrient inputs at the watershed scale is best expressed in terms of in-stream processes, compared to evaluating simple field measurements of nutrient inputs. Modeling tools are necessary to consider the complexity of river networks in the determination of the sources and processes by which nutrients are transported at the watershed scale. Mediterranean rivers are potentially vulnerable to climate change (decrease in precipitation and increase of extreme events), and identifying and quantifying nutrient pollution sources and their spatial distribution can improve water resource management at the watershed scale.