Increased rate of CVD events and death seen with high level of fine particulate matter during Mendocino Complex wildfire<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter<\/b>
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THURSDAY, Feb. 20, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Evidence of increased rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events and death during U.S. wildfires is inconsistent between wildfires, according to a study published online Feb. 5 in the Journal of the American Heart Association<\/em>.<\/p>\n Stacey E. Alexeeff, Ph.D., from Kaiser Permanente Northern California in Pleasanton, and colleagues examined the association between acute CVD events and wildfire air pollution in California in 2018 in a study involving 3.2 million adults (aged 18 years and older) with a total follow-up of 587.9 million person-days.<\/p>\n The researchers found that compared with low fine particulate matter concentrations (<12 \u00b5g\/m3<\/sup>), a high level of fine particulate matter (\u226535 \u00b5g\/m3<\/sup>) during the Mendocino Complex wildfire in July to August 2018 was associated with an increased rate of CVD events and death (rate ratios [95 percent confidence intervals], 1.231 [1.039 to 1.458] and 1.358 [1.128 to 1.635], respectively). In contrast, no evidence for an increased risk was seen during the Camp wildfire in November 2018 (rate ratios [95 percent confidence intervals], 0.966 [0.894 to 1.044] and 0.985 [0.904 to 1.074] for CVD events and all-cause mortality, respectively).<\/p>\n “Our mixed results for the two major 2018 wildfires are similar to prior literature showing inconsistent associations across studies,” the authors write. “With ongoing climate change, large wildfires are a pressing public health concern, and determining the underlying drivers of these mixed results remains an important research need.”<\/p>\n