An Evaluation of the British Columbia Asthma Monitoring System (BCAMS) and PM2.5 Exposure Metrics during the 2014 Forest Fire Season

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Kathleen E. McLean²  Jiayun Yao²  Sarah B. Henderson²  Paul B. Tchounwou¹ 

[1] Environmental Health Services, British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, 655 West 12th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada;;Environmental Health Services, British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, 655 West 12th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4R4, Canada; E-Mails:

关键词: forest fire smoke;    particulate matter;    environmental exposure;    asthma;    public health surveillance;    evaluation studies;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph120606710

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The British Columbia Asthma Monitoring System (BCAMS) tracks forest fire smoke exposure and asthma-related health outcomes, identifying excursions beyond expected daily counts. Weekly reports during the wildfire season support public health and emergency management decision-making. We evaluated BCAMS by identifying excursions for asthma-related physician visits and dispensations of the reliever medication salbutamol sulfate and examining their corresponding smoke exposures. A disease outbreak detection algorithm identified excursions from 1 July to 31 August 2014. Measured, modeled, and forecasted concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) were used to assess exposure. We assigned PM_2.5 levels to excursions by choosing the highest value within a seven day window centred on the excursion day. Smoky days were defined as those with PM_2.5 levels ≥ 25 µg/m³. Most excursions (57%–71%) were assigned measured or modeled PM_2.5 concentrations of 10 µg/m³ or higher. Of the smoky days, 55.8% and 69.8% were associated with at least one excursion for physician visits and salbutamol dispensations, respectively. BCAMS alerted most often when measures of smoke exposure were relatively high. Better performance might be realized by combining asthma-related outcome metrics in a bivariate model.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.