Wildfire Seasons, Prenatal PM Exposure, and Respiratory Infections by Age 1 Year: A Population-Based Case-Control Analysis of Critical Developmental Windows.

The 2017 and 2018 wildfire seasons in British Columbia (BC), Canada were unprecedented. Among all the pollutants in wildfire smoke, fine particulate matter (PM) poses the most significant risk to human health. There is limited research on prenatal wildfire smoke exposure and its impacts on infant health.

Heat-related illness among workers in British Columbia, Canada: Extreme hot weather in 2021 compared to 2001-2020.

Objectives: British Columbia (BC), Canada, experienced an unprecedented summer with record-breaking high temperatures in 2021. Yet the health impact has not been examined in occupational settings. This study aimed to characterize occupational heat-related illness (HRI) among BC workers estimated by incidence rates and associations between heatwaves and HRI, compare risks from 2021 and prior summers of 2001-2020, and assess differential impacts on worker groups by demographics and occupations.

Long-term Impact of Tropical Cyclones on Disease Exacerbation Among Children with Asthma in the Eastern United States, 2000-2018.

Background: Tropical cyclones are associated with acute increases in mortality and morbidity, but few studies have examined their longer-term health consequences. We assessed whether tropical cyclones are associated with a higher frequency of symptom exacerbation among children with asthma in the following 12 months in eastern United States counties, 2000-2018.

Methods: We defined exposure to tropical cyclones as a maximum sustained windspeed >21 meters/second at the county center and used coarsened exact matching to match each exposed county to one or more unexposed counties.

Does choice of outdoor heat metric affect heat-related epidemiologic analyses in the US Medicare population?

Unlabelled: Outdoor air temperature is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Other thermal indices theoretically confer greater physiological relevance by incorporating additional meteorological variables. However, the optimal metric for predicting excess deaths or hospitalizations owing to extreme heat among US Medicare beneficiaries remains unknown.

Survey of extreme heat public health preparedness plans and response activities in the most populous jurisdictions in the United States.

Background: Increasingly frequent and intense extreme heat events (EHEs) are indicative of climate change impacts, and urban areas' social and built environments increase their risk for health consequences. Heat action plans (HAPs) are a strategy to bolster municipal EHE preparedness. The objective of this research is to characterize municipal interventions to EHEs and compare U.

Planning to Reduce the Health Impacts of Extreme Heat: A Content Analysis of Heat Action Plans in Local United States Jurisdictions.

To examine commonalities and gaps in the content of local US heat action plans (HAPs) designed to decrease the adverse health effects of extreme heat. We used content analysis to identify common strategies and gaps in extreme heat preparedness among written HAPs in the United States from jurisdictions that serve municipalities with more than 200 000 residents. We reviewed, coded, and analyzed plans to assess the prevalence of key components and strategies.

Assessing the causal effects of a stochastic intervention in time series data: are heat alerts effective in preventing deaths and hospitalizations?

The methodological development of this article is motivated by the need to address the following scientific question: does the issuance of heat alerts prevent adverse health effects? Our goal is to address this question within a causal inference framework in the context of time series data. A key challenge is that causal inference methods require the overlap assumption to hold: each unit (i.e.

The unprecedented Pacific Northwest heatwave of June 2021.

In late June 2021 a heatwave of unprecedented magnitude impacted the Pacific Northwest region of Canada and the United States. Many locations broke all-time maximum temperature records by more than 5 °C, and the Canadian national temperature record was broken by 4.6 °C, with a new record temperature of 49.

Heat-Related Illness Among Workers in British Columbia, 2001-2020.

Objective: The aim of this study was to describe the incidence of heat-related illness among workers in British Columbia (BC), Canada, 2001-2020.

Methods: Cases of heat-related illness occurring among workers aged 15 years and older were identified from accepted lost-time claims from WorkSafeBC, the provincial workers' compensation board. Incidence rates were calculated using monthly estimates of the working population from Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey as the denominator.

Examining the Optimal Placement of Cooling Centers to Serve Populations at High Risk of Extreme Heat Exposure in 81 US Cities.

Objective: Although extreme heat can impact the health of anyone, certain groups are disproportionately affected. In urban settings, cooling centers are intended to reduce heat exposure by providing air-conditioned spaces to the public. We examined the characteristics of populations living near cooling centers and how well they serve areas with high social vulnerability.

The effect modification of extreme temperatures on mental and behavior disorders by environmental factors and individual-level characteristics in Canada.

Objective: Ambient extreme temperatures have been associated with mental and behavior disorders (MBDs). However, few studies have assesed whether vulnerability factors such as ambient air pollution, pre-existing mental health conditions and residential environmental factors increase susceptibility. This study aims to evaluate the associations between short-term variations in outdoor ambient extreme temperatures and MBD-related emergency department (ED) visits and how these associations are modified by vulnerability factors.

Increasing Health Risks During Outdoor Sports Due To Climate Change in Texas: Projections Versus Attitudes.

Extreme heat is a recognized threat to human health. This study examines projected future trends of multiple measures of extreme heat across Texas throughout the next century, and evaluates the expected climate changes alongside Texas athletic staff (coach and athletic trainer) attitudes toward heat and climate change. Numerical climate simulations from the recently published Community Earth System Model version 2 and the Climate Model Intercomparison Project were used to predict changes in summer temperatures, heat indices, and wet bulb temperatures across Texas and also within specific metropolitan areas.

Warm Season and Emergency Department Visits to U.S. Children's Hospitals.

Background: Extreme heat exposures are increasing with climate change. Health effects are well documented in adults, but the risks to children are not well characterized.

Objectives: We estimated the association between warm season (May to September) temperatures and cause-specific emergency department (ED) visits among U.

Ambient heat and risks of emergency department visits among adults in the United States: time stratified case crossover study.

Objective: To quantify the association between ambient heat and visits to the emergency department (ED) for any cause and for cause specific conditions in the conterminous United States among adults with health insurance.

Design: Time stratified case crossover analyses with distributed lag non-linear models.

Setting: US nationwide administrative healthcare claims database.

Heat warnings, mortality, and hospital admissions among older adults in the United States.

Background: Heat warnings are issued in advance of forecast extreme heat events, yet little evidence is available regarding their effectiveness in reducing heat-related illness and death. We estimated the association of heat warnings and advisories (collectively, "alerts") issued by the United States National Weather Service with all-cause mortality and cause-specific hospitalizations among Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years and older in 2,817 counties, 2006-2016.

Methods: In each county, we compared days with heat alerts to days without heat alerts, matched on daily maximum heat index and month.

Association Between Hurricane Sandy and Emergency Department Visits in New York City by Age and Cause.

The magnitude, timing, and etiology of morbidity associated with tropical cyclones remains incompletely quantified. We examined the relative change in cause-specific emergency department (ED) visits among residents of New York City during and after Hurricane Sandy, a tropical cyclone that affected the northeastern United States in October 2012. We used quasi-Poisson constrained distributed lag models to compare the number of ED visits on and after Hurricane Sandy with all other days, 2005-2014, adjusting for temporal trends.

Comparison of temperature-mortality associations estimated with different exposure metrics.

Unlabelled: Studies of the short-term association between ambient temperature and mortality often use temperature observations from a single monitoring station, frequently located at the nearest airport, to represent the exposure of individuals living across large areas. Population-weighted temperature estimates constructed from gridded meteorological data may offer an opportunity to improve exposure assessment in locations where station observations do not fully capture the average exposure of the population of interest.

Methods: We compared the association between daily mean temperature and mortality in each of 113 United States counties using (1) temperature observations from a single weather station and (2) population-weighted temperature estimates constructed from a gridded meteorological dataset.

Estimating the number of excess deaths attributable to heat in 297 United States counties.

Unlabelled: There is a well-established relationship between high ambient temperature and risk of death. However, the number of deaths attributable to heat each year in the United States remains incompletely quantified.

Methods: We replicated the approach from a large, international study to estimate temperature-mortality associations in 297 United States counties and additionally calculated the number of deaths attributable to heat, a quantity of likely interest to policymakers and the public.

Tropical cyclones and risk of preterm birth: A retrospective analysis of 20 million births across 378 US counties.

Background: The public health impacts of tropical cyclones (TCs) are expected to increase due to the continued growth of coastal populations and the increasing severity of these events. However, the impact of TCs on pregnant women, a vulnerable population, remains largely unknown. We aimed to estimate the association between prenatal exposure to TCs and risk of preterm birth in the eastern United States (US) and to assess whether the association varies by individual- and area-level characteristics.

Increased Risk of Opioid Overdose Death Following Cold Weather: A Case-Crossover Study.

Background: The United States is in the midst of an opioid overdose crisis. Little is known about the role of environmental factors in increasing risk of fatal opioid overdose.

Methods: We conducted a case-crossover analysis of 3,275 opioid overdose deaths recorded in Connecticut and Rhode Island in 2014-2017.

Ambient Temperature and Markers of Fetal Growth: A Retrospective Observational Study of 29 Million U.S. Singleton Births.

Background: Emerging studies suggest that ambient temperature during pregnancy may be associated with fetal growth, but the existing evidence is limited and inconsistent.

Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the association of trimester-specific temperature with risk of being born small for gestational age (SGA) and birth weight-markers of fetal growth-among term births in the contiguous United States.

Methods: We included data on 29,597,735 live singleton births between 1989 and 2002 across 403 U.