The Effect of Wildfires on Asthma and Allergies.

Climate change is a major driver of the frequency and severity of wildfires caused by extended periods of drought and hotter, drier weather superimposed on the legacy of fire suppression in the Mountain West of the United States. In recent years, increased wildfire smoke has negated the improvements in air quality made by clean energy transitions. Wildfire smoke is a complex mixture of gases and solids, a chief constituent of which is fine particulate matter (PM).

Measured air quality impacts after teaching parents about cooking ventilation with a video: a pilot study.

Background: Cooking-related emissions contribute to air pollutants in the home and may influence children's health outcomes.

Objective: In this pilot study, we investigate the effects of a cooking ventilation intervention in homes with gas stoves, including a video-based educational intervention and range hood replacement (when needed) in children's homes.

Methods: This was a pilot (n = 14), before-after trial (clinicaltrials.

Impacts from air pollution on respiratory disease outcomes: a meta-analysis.

Introduction: Air pollution is widely acknowledged as a significant factor in respiratory outcomes, including coughing, wheezing, emergency department (ED) visits, and even death. Although several literature reviews have confirmed the association between air pollution and respiratory outcomes, they often did not standardize associations across different studies and overlooked other increasingly impactful pollutants such as trace metals. Recognizing the importance of consistent comparison and emissions of non-exhaust particles from road traffic, this study aims to comprehensively evaluate the standardized effects of various criteria pollutants and trace metals on respiratory health.

Long-term air pollution exposure and the risk of primary graft dysfunction after lung transplantation.

Background: Primary graft dysfunction (PGD) contributes substantially to both short- and long-term mortality after lung transplantation, but the mechanisms that lead to PGD are not well understood. Exposure to ambient air pollutants is associated with adverse events during waitlisting for lung transplantation and chronic lung allograft dysfunction, but its association with PGD has not been studied. We hypothesized that long-term exposure of the lung donor and recipient to high levels of ambient air pollutants would increase the risk of PGD in lung transplant recipients.

Health effects of air pollution on respiratory symptoms: A longitudinal study using digital health sensors.

Previous studies of air pollution and respiratory disease often relied on aggregated or lagged acute respiratory disease outcome measures, such as emergency department (ED) visits or hospitalizations, which may lack temporal and spatial resolution. This study investigated the association between daily air pollution exposure and respiratory symptoms among participants with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), using a unique dataset passively collected by digital sensors monitoring inhaled medication use. The aggregated dataset comprised 456,779 short-acting beta-agonist (SABA) puffs across 3,386 people with asthma or COPD, between 2012 and 2019, across the state of California.

Indoor Air Sources of Outdoor Air Pollution: Health Consequences, Policy, and Recommendations: An Official American Thoracic Society Workshop Report.

Indoor sources of air pollution worsen indoor and outdoor air quality. Thus, identifying and reducing indoor pollutant sources would decrease both indoor and outdoor air pollution, benefit public health, and help address the climate crisis. As outdoor sources come under regulatory control, unregulated indoor sources become a rising percentage of the problem.

Diesel exhaust and respiratory dust exposure in miners and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) mortality in DEMS II.

Background: Diesel exhaust and respirable dust exposures in the mining industry have not been studied in depth with respect to non-malignant respiratory disease including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), with most available evidence coming from other settings.

Objectives: To assess the relationship between occupational diesel exhaust and respirable dust exposures and COPD mortality, while addressing issues of survivor bias in exposed miners.

Methods: The study population consisted of 11,817 male workers from the Diesel Exhaust in Miners Study II, followed from 1947 to 2015, with 279 observed COPD deaths.

Biomass smoke exposure and somatic growth among children: The RESPIRE and CRECER prospective cohort studies in rural Guatemala.

Background: Cooking-related biomass smoke is a major source of household air pollution (HAP) and an important health hazard. Prior studies identified associations between HAP exposure and childhood stunting; less is known for underweight and wasting. Few studies had personal HAP measurements.

Exposure to ambient air pollutants and acute respiratory distress syndrome risk in sepsis.

Purpose: Exposures to ambient air pollutants may prime the lung enhancing risk of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in sepsis. Our objective was to determine the association of short-, medium-, and long-term pollutant exposures and ARDS risk in critically ill sepsis patients.

Methods: We analyzed a prospective cohort of 1858 critically ill patients with sepsis, and estimated short- (3 days), medium- (6 weeks), and long- (5 years) term exposures to ozone, nitrogen dioxide (NO), sulfur dioxide (SO), carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter < 2.

Cognitive Development and Prenatal Air Pollution Exposure in the CHAMACOS Cohort.

Background: Because fine particulate matter [PM, with aerodynamic diameter ()] is a ubiquitous environmental exposure, small changes in cognition associated with exposure could have great societal costs. Prior studies have demonstrated a relationship between exposure and cognitive development in urban populations, but it is not known whether these effects are similar in rural populations and whether they persist into late childhood.

Objectives: In this study, we tested for associations between prenatal exposure and both full-scale and subscale measures of IQ among a longitudinal cohort at age 10.

Ozone and childhood respiratory health: A primer for US pediatric providers and a call for a more protective standard.

Ground level ozone is a potent respiratory toxicant with decades of accumulated data demonstrating respiratory harms to children. Despite the ubiquity of ozone in the United States, impacting both urban and rural communities, the associated harms of exposure to this important air pollutant are often infrequently or inadequately covered during medical training including pulmonary specialization. Thus, many providers caring for children's respiratory health may have limited knowledge of the harms which may result in reduced discussion of ozone pollution during clinical encounters.