(HealthDay)—Exposure to wildfire-specific airborne fine particles with diameter ≤2.5 µm (PM2.5) is more harmful for children’s respiratory health than exposure to PM2.5 from other sources, resulting in an estimated 30.0 percent increase in visits to emergency and urgent care facilities, according to a study published online March 23 in Pediatrics.
Rosana Aguilera, Ph.D., from the University of California in San Diego, and colleagues examined the correlations between wildfire-specific PM2.5 and pediatric respiratory health during 2011 to 2017. Visits to emergency and urgent care facilities by individuals aged 19 years and younger with one or more respiratory condition, including difficulty breathing, respiratory distress, wheezing, asthma, or cough, were regressed on exposure to wildfire-specific PM2.5 and PM2.5 from ambient sources.
The researchers found that the number of admissions increased by 3.7 percent with a 10-unit increase in PM2.5 from nonsmoke sources. In contrast, there was an estimated 30.0 percent increase in visits due to PM2.5 attributable to wildfire.
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