Health impacts of wildfire-related air pollution in Brazil: a nationwide study of more than 2 million hospital admissions between 2008 and 2018

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 6555 - 9
• Main Authors: Requia, Weeberb J., Amini, Heresh, Mukherjee, Rajarshi, Gold, Diane R., Schwartz, Joel D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 12.11.2021; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 692/499; 704/172/4081; Air Pollutants - analysis; Air pollution; Air Pollution - analysis; Brazil; Epidemiology; Hospitalization - statistics & numerical data; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; multidisciplinary; Particulate matter; Patient admissions; Placebo effect; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Wildfires; Brazil
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26822-7

We quantified the impacts of wildfire-related PM 2.5 on 2 million hospital admissions records due to cardiorespiratory diseases in Brazil between 2008 and 2018. The national analysis shows that wildfire waves are associated with an increase of 23% (95%CI: 12%–33%) in respiratory hospital admissions and an increase of 21% (95%CI: 8%–35%) in circulatory hospital admissions. In the North (where most of the Amazon region is located), we estimate an increase of 38% (95%CI: 30%–47%) in respiratory hospital admissions and 27% (95%CI: 15%–39%) in circulatory hospital admissions. Here we report epidemiological evidence that air pollution emitted by wildfires is significantly associated with a higher risk of cardiorespiratory hospital admissions. Brazil is a wildfire-prone region, and few studies have investigated the health impacts of wildfire exposure. Here, the authors show that wildfire waves are associated with an increase of 23% in respiratory hospital admissions and an increase of 21% in circulatory hospital admissions in Brazil.