Effects of Extreme Humidity and Heat on Ventricular Arrhythmia Risk in Patients With Cardiac Devices.

Background: Climate change is increasing the frequency of high heat and high humidity days. Whether these conditions can trigger ventricular arrhythmias [ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation, VT/VF] in susceptible persons is unknown.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between warm-season weather conditions and risk of VT/VF in individuals with pacemakers and defibrillators.

Estimating spatially varying health effects of wildland fire smoke using mobile health data.

Wildland fire smoke exposures are an increasing threat to public health, highlighting the need for studying the effects of protective behaviours on reducing health outcomes. Emerging smartphone applications provide unprecedented opportunities to deliver health risk communication messages to a large number of individuals in real-time and subsequently study the effectiveness, but also pose methodological challenges. Smoke Sense, a citizen science project, provides an interactive smartphone app platform for participants to engage with information about air quality, and ways to record their own health symptoms and actions taken to reduce smoke exposure.

Quantifying Multipollutant Health Impacts Using the Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program-Community Edition (BenMAP-CE): A Case Study in Atlanta, Georgia.

Background: Air pollution risk assessments do not generally quantify health impacts using multipollutant risk estimates, but instead use results from single-pollutant or copollutant models. Multipollutant epidemiological models account for pollutant interactions and joint effects but can be computationally complex and data intensive. Risk estimates from multipollutant studies are therefore challenging to implement in the quantification of health impacts.

Self-reported health impacts of do-it-yourself air cleaner use in a smoke-impacted community.

Background: Smoke exposure from wildfires or residential wood burning for heat is a public health problem for many communities. Do-It-Yourself (DIY) portable air cleaners (PACs) are promoted as affordable alternatives to commercial PACs, but evidence of their effect on health outcomes is limited.

Objective: Pilot test an evaluation of the effect of DIY PAC usage on self-reported symptoms, and investigate barriers and facilitators of PAC use, among members of a tribal community that routinely experiences elevated concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM) from smoke.

Applying a multistate survival model to explore the role of fine particles in promoting frailty in the Medicare cohort.

Fine particle pollution is a well-established risk to human health. Observational epidemiology generally treats events as though they are independent of one another and so do not examine the role air pollution may play in promoting the progression of disease. Multistate survival models account for the complex pathway of disease to death.

Achievements and gaps in projection studies on the temperature-attributable health burden: Where should we be headed?

Future projection of the temperature-related health burden, including mortality and hospital admissions, is a growing field of research. These studies aim to provide crucial information for decision-makers considering existing health policies as well as integrating targeted adaptation strategies to evade the health burden. However, this field of research is still overshadowed by large uncertainties.

Advancing the community health vulnerability index for wildland fire smoke exposure.

Wildland fire smoke risks are not uniformly distributed across people and places, and the most vulnerable communities are often disproportionately impacted. This study develops a county level community health vulnerability index (CHVI) for the Contiguous United States (CONUS) using three major vulnerability components: adaptive capacity, sensitivity, and exposure at the national and regional level. We first calculated sensitivity and adaptive capacity sub-indices using nine sensitivity and twenty adaptive capacity variables.

Using Geospatial Data and Random Forest To Predict PFAS Contamination in Fish Tissue in the Columbia River Basin, United States.

Decision makers in the Columbia River Basin (CRB) are currently challenged with identifying and characterizing the extent of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination and human exposure to PFAS. This work aims to develop and pilot a methodology to help decision makers target and prioritize sampling investigations and identify contaminated natural resources. Here we use random forest models to predict ∑PFAS in fish tissue; understanding PFAS levels in fish is particularly important in the CRB because fish can be a major component of tribal and indigenous people diet.

Effects of Controlled Ozone Exposure on Circulating microRNAs and Vascular and Coagulation Biomarkers: A Mediation Analysis.

Exposure to ozone (O) is associated with adverse respiratory and cardiovascular outcomes. Alterations in circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) may contribute to the adverse vascular effects of O exposure through inter-cellular communication resulting in post-transcriptional regulation of messenger RNAs by miRNAs. In this study, we investigated whether O exposure induces alterations in circulating miRNAs that can mediate effects on downstream vascular and coagulation biomarkers.

Urban heat island impacts on heat-related cardiovascular morbidity: A time series analysis of older adults in US metropolitan areas.

Many United States (US) cities are experiencing urban heat islands (UHIs) and climate change-driven temperature increases. Extreme heat increases cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, yet little is known about how this association varies with UHI intensity (UHII) within and between cities. We aimed to identify the urban populations most at-risk of and burdened by heat-related CVD morbidity in UHI-affected areas compared to unaffected areas.

Health Research in the Wake of Disasters: Challenges and Opportunities for Sensor Science.

Background: Disaster events adversely affect the health of millions of individuals each year. They create exposure to physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial hazards while simultaneously exploiting community and individual-level vulnerabilities that allow such exposures to exert harm. Since 2013, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) has led the development of the Disaster Research Response (DR2) program and infrastructure; however, research exploring the nature and effects of disasters on human health is lacking.

Wildfire smoke exposure and early childhood respiratory health: a study of prescription claims data.

Wildfire smoke is associated with short-term respiratory outcomes including asthma exacerbation in children. As investigations into developmental wildfire smoke exposure on children's longer-term respiratory health are sparse, we investigated associations between developmental wildfire smoke exposure and first use of respiratory medications. Prescription claims from IBM MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters database were linked with wildfire smoke plume data from NASA satellites based on Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).

A SPATIAL CAUSAL ANALYSIS OF WILDLAND FIRE-CONTRIBUTED PM USING NUMERICAL MODEL OUTPUT.

Wildland fire smoke contains hazardous levels of fine particulate matter (PM), a pollutant shown to adversely effect health. Estimating fire attributable PM concentrations is key to quantifying the impact on air quality and subsequent health burden. This is a challenging problem since only total PM is measured at monitoring stations and both fire-attributable PM and PM from all other sources are correlated in space and time.

Risk of systemic fungal infections after exposure to wildfires: a population-based, retrospective study in California.

Background: Large-scale wildfires in California, USA, are increasing in both size and frequency, with substantial health consequences. The capacity for wildfire smoke to displace microbes and cause clinically significant fungal infections is poorly understood. We aimed to determine whether exposure to wildfire smoke was associated with an increased risk of hospital admissions for systemic fungal infections.

Associations of Air Pollution and Serum Biomarker Abnormalities in Individuals with Hemodialysis-Dependent Kidney Failure.

Background: Ambient particles with a median aerodynamic diameter of <2.5 µm (PM2.5) is a ubiquitous air pollutant with established adverse health consequences.

Responses to Wildfire and Prescribed Fire Smoke: A Survey of a Medically Vulnerable Adult Population in the Wildland-Urban Interface, Mariposa County, California.

California plans to substantially increase the use of prescribed fire to reduce risk of catastrophic wildfires. Although for a beneficial purpose, prescribed fire smoke may still pose a health concern, especially among sensitive populations. We sought to understand community health experience, adaptive capacity, and attitudes regarding wildland and prescribed fire smoke to inform public health guidance.

Long-term exposure to ambient O and PM is associated with reduced cognitive performance in young adults: A retrospective longitudinal repeated measures study in adults aged 18-90 years.

A growing body of evidence indicates that exposure to air pollution affects cognitive performance; however, few studies have assessed this in the context of repeated measures within a large group of individuals or in a population with a large age range. In this study, we evaluated the associations between long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM) and ozone (O) in large cohort of adults aged 18-90 years. The study cohort included 29,091 Lumosity users in the contiguous US who completed 20 repetitions of the Lost in Migration game between 2017 and 2018.

Feasibility and acceptability of home monitoring with portable spirometry in young adults with asthma.

Objective: Self-monitoring asthma control is a key component of asthma management. Few studies have reported usability and acceptability of portable spirometry among young adults with asthma. Portable spirometry offers a practical solution to monitoring airway narrowing at home.

Wildfires and the Changing Landscape of Air Pollution-related Health Burden in California.

Wildfires are a growing source of pollution including particulate matter ⩽2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM), but associated trends in health burden are not well characterized. We investigated trends and disparities in PM-related cardiorespiratory health burden (asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and all-cause respiratory and cardiovascular emergency department [ED] visits and hospital admissions) for all days and wildfire smoke-affected days across California from 2008 to 2016.

Improvement in Fitted Filtration Efficiency of N95 Respirators With Escalating Instruction of the Wearer.

Introduction: Fitted filtration performance of an N95 respirator may benefit from differing levels of instructions.

Methods: Using a modified Occupational Safety and Health Administration fit test protocol, we measured fitted filtration efficiency for an N95 respirator in 21 screened, healthy participants given 4 levels of escalating instruction: (1) uninstructed (baseline), (2) written/pictorial manufacturer instructions, (3) step-by-step video demonstration, and (4) staff instruction (visual inspection of respirator fit and verbal suggestions to adjust when applicable).

Results: Baseline fitted filtration efficiency was not significantly different between participants with or without previous experience of N95 use.

Estimating intervention effects on infectious disease control: The effect of community mobility reduction on Coronavirus spread.

Understanding the effects of interventions, such as restrictions on community and large group gatherings, is critical to controlling the spread of COVID-19. Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered (SIR) models are traditionally used to forecast the infection rates but do not provide insights into the causal effects of interventions. We propose a spatiotemporal model that estimates the causal effect of changes in community mobility (intervention) on infection rates.