221815 Integrated satellite imaging and syndromic surveillance reveal health effects of smoke from wildfires in rural eastern North Carolina counties in the summer of 2008

Wednesday, November 10, 2010 : 1:06 PM - 1:24 PM

Ana Rappold, PhD , Environmental Public Health Division, US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC
Susan Stone, MS , Environmental Public Health Division, US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC
Wayne Cascio, MD , East Carolina Heart Institute, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC
Lucas Neas, PhD , Environmental Public Health Division, US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC
Vasu Kilaru, MS , Land Characterization Branch, US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC
Martha Sue Carraway, MD , Environmental Public Health Division, US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC
James Szykman , Land Characterization Branch, US Environmental Protection Agency, Hampton, VA
Shobha Kondragunta, PhD , Center for Satellite Applications and Research, NOAA/NESDIS, Camp Springs, MD
Mohammed Farooqui, MD , East Carolina Heart Institute, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC
Svetlana Deyneka, MD, MPH , North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Raleigh, NC
Heather Vaughan-Batten, MPH , North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Raleigh, NC
Amy Ising, MSIS , NC DETECT, UNC Department of Emergency Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC
Clifton Barnett, MSIS , NC DETECT, UNC Department of Emergency Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC
Robert Devlin, PhD , Environmental Public Health Division, US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC
Rationale: Wildfire smoke often impacts rural areas without air quality monitors, limiting assessment of health impacts. A 2008 wildfire in Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge produced massive quantities of smoke affecting eastern NC, a rural area with limited air quality monitoring. To assess the association between smoke exposure and adverse health effects, we evaluated the rates of asthma- and other respiratory-related emergency department (ED) visits in the affected counties during and after the fire.

Methods: Aerosol optical depth (AOD) from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite was used to determine the location and extent of the smoke plume. Individual-level ED data, obtained from the NC Disease Event Tracking and Epidemiologic Collection Tool, included the visit date, list of chief complaints, up to 11 discharge ICD-9-CM codes, gender, age, and county of residence. We used Poisson regression to model the expected daily number of ED visits as a function of the dichotomous exposure predictor, adjusted for weekend and county-level disease rates.

Results: Carbon particles in the smoke permitted satellite AOD to trace the plume. Exposure to wildfire smoke increased the relative risk for asthma-related ED visits by 12.4% (95% CI 0-26.4%) at lag 0 (today) and a 9.6% (95% CI 0-22%) at lag 1 (yesterday).

Conclusions: Satellite data and syndromic surveillance can be combined to assess the health impacts of smoke in rural counties. Short-term wildfire smoke exposure resulted in increased rates of asthma-related ED visits.

This is an abstract of a proposed presentation and does not necessarily reflect EPA policy.

Learning Areas:
Environmental health sciences
Epidemiology
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Describe the value of integrating satellite data and syndromic surveillance to assess the health impacts of wildfire smoke in rural counties.

Keywords: Environmental Exposures, Asthma

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I contributed directly to the study design, implementation of data collection, and analysis of the data and the authorship of the abstract submitted.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.