PreprintArticleVersion 1Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Health Effects of Wildfires Reported in Emergency Medical Communication Centres: An Ecological Study in Gironde District, France, during the Summer of 2022
Version 1
: Received: 23 October 2023 / Approved: 1 November 2023 / Online: 2 November 2023 (07:58:23 CET)
How to cite:
Eklöf, S.; Lagarde, E.; Tellier, E.; Russon, D.; Pradeau, C.; Laflamme, L.; Gil-Jardine, C. Health Effects of Wildfires Reported in Emergency Medical Communication Centres: An Ecological Study in Gironde District, France, during the Summer of 2022. Preprints2023, 2023110133. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202311.0133.v1
Eklöf, S.; Lagarde, E.; Tellier, E.; Russon, D.; Pradeau, C.; Laflamme, L.; Gil-Jardine, C. Health Effects of Wildfires Reported in Emergency Medical Communication Centres: An Ecological Study in Gironde District, France, during the Summer of 2022. Preprints 2023, 2023110133. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202311.0133.v1
Eklöf, S.; Lagarde, E.; Tellier, E.; Russon, D.; Pradeau, C.; Laflamme, L.; Gil-Jardine, C. Health Effects of Wildfires Reported in Emergency Medical Communication Centres: An Ecological Study in Gironde District, France, during the Summer of 2022. Preprints2023, 2023110133. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202311.0133.v1
APA Style
Eklöf, S., Lagarde, E., Tellier, E., Russon, D., Pradeau, C., Laflamme, L., & Gil-Jardine, C. (2023). Health Effects of Wildfires Reported in Emergency Medical Communication Centres: An Ecological Study in Gironde District, France, during the Summer of 2022. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202311.0133.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Eklöf, S., Lucie Laflamme and Cédric Gil-Jardine. 2023 "Health Effects of Wildfires Reported in Emergency Medical Communication Centres: An Ecological Study in Gironde District, France, during the Summer of 2022" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202311.0133.v1
Abstract
Wildfires are a rising environmental threat which health impact remains poorly documented, in particular beyond the fire period. This ecological study investigates changes in health conditions before, during, and after two consecutive wildfires that occurred in France´s Gironde district in the summer 2022. Electronic records from the district´s emergency medical communication centre were used to identify calls with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and two specific subgroups of those, asthma (all ages and 0-5 years) and cardiac arrest, respectively. Compared to before the fires, respiratory disease cases were fewer during each fire (OR = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.79, 0.90 and OR = 0.62, 95% CI: 0.58, 0.67, respectively), cardiovascular disease cases, more common during the second fire, and asthma cases, higher following the fires (ORall ages= 1.85, 95% CI: 1.56, 2.21 and ORchildren= 3.52, 95% CI: 2.62, 4.80). Asthma cases also rose during the same calendar time in 2021, but to a lesser extent. In sum, except for asthma, emergency calls data in Gironde reveal few significant potentially smoke-related symptoms around fire periods, apart from post-fire asthma. Whether the effects are smoke- or season-related remains to be determined, preferably using additional data sources.
Keywords
wildfires; smoke; air pollution; climate change; asthma; respiratory diseases; emergency medical services
Subject
Public Health and Healthcare, Public, Environmental and Occupational Health
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.