Observations of Delayed Changes in Respiratory Function among Allergy Clinic Patients Exposed to Wildfire Smoke

James Blando, Michael Allen, Hadiza Galadima, Timothy Tolson, Muge Akpinar-Elci and Mariana Szklo-Coxe
Additional contact information
James Blando: School of Community and Environmental Health, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA
Michael Allen: Geography Program, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA
Hadiza Galadima: School of Community and Environmental Health, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA
Timothy Tolson: Albemarle Allergy & Asthma PC, Elizabeth City, NC 27909, USA
Muge Akpinar-Elci: School of Public Health, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557, USA
Mariana Szklo-Coxe: School of Community and Environmental Health, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 3, 1-10

Abstract: Wildfires have increased in frequency and magnitude and pose a significant public health challenge. The principal objective of this study was to assess the impact of wildfire smoke on respiratory peak flow performance of patients exposed to two different wildfire events. This longitudinal study utilized an observational approach and a cohort study design with a patient-level clinical dataset from a local outpatient allergy clinic ( n = 842). Meteorological data from a local weather station served as a proxy for smoke exposure because air quality measurements were not available. This study found that there were decreases in respiratory peak flow among allergy clinic patients one year after each wildfire event. For every one percent increase in wind blowing from the fire towards the community, there was, on average, a 2.21 L per minute decrease in respiratory peak flow. This study observed an effect on respiratory peak flow performance among patients at a local allergy clinic one year after suspected exposure to wildfire smoke. There are likely multiple reasons for the observation of this relationship, including the possibility that wildfire smoke may enhance allergic sensitization to other allergens or that wildfire smoke itself may elicit a delayed immune response.

Keywords: wildfire; peak flow; sensitization; smoke; respiratory; allergy; delayed (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/3/1241/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/3/1241/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:3:p:1241-:d:731075

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().