A systematic review of respiratory infection due to air pollution during natural disasters

Abstract

BACKGROUND Wildfire and volcano eruption occurred in Indonesia due to its geographical location, climate change, global warming, and human behavior. Various substances produced an increased risk of experiencing health problems, including respiratory infection. Evidence about the effect of pulmonary infection during natural disasters is still limited. This study was aimed to review and elaborate on previous studies to determine the effect of air pollution exposure during natural disasters and respiratory infection.
 METHODS Literature searches were conducted on PubMed, EBSCOhost, and Google Scholar, and was limited to the 10 last years, human studies, and the English language. Inclusion criteria were articles with representation for clinical questions, review articles, population studies, and the full-text article was available. Exclusion criteria were articles that only discussed the exposure to and not the association with the effect of the respiratory infection. The Oxford Center for Evidence-Based Medicine tools appraised six relevant articles.
 RESULTS Air pollution during a natural disaster enhances particulate matter to 10–70 μg/m3 and more than 5 times the aerosol optical depth measurement compared with the tolerated air concentration. The air level was consistently related to acute respiratory infection, pneumonia, bronchitis, and bronchiolitis admissions in wildfire smoke and volcanic eruption in this review. Nevertheless, there was a diverse result for upper respiratory infection cases.
 CONCLUSIONS Natural disasters increased the level of ambient air pollution that exceeded the levels recommended by the World Health Organization air quality guideline. Air pollution may play an important role in respiratory tract infection, especially among population with high exposure.

Risk Factors for Respiratory Viral Infections: A Spotlight on Climate Change and Air Pollution

“…A systematic review of air pollution exposure during natural disasters including wildland fires and volcanic eruptions concluded that PM generated by these events was associated with increased rates of acute respiratory infection, pneumonia, bronchitis, and bronchiolitis. 30 A consistent association across multiple studies was observed between exposure to wildfire-related particulate matter less than 2.5 µm in diameter (PM 2.5 ) and increased ED visits and hospitalizations for acute respiratory infection. 31 , 42–47 Delfino et al found that during wildfires in Southern California, the number of hospital admissions for pneumonia increased by 1.3x (95% CI 1.17, 1.48) and admissions for acute bronchitis/bronchiolitis increased by 1.6x (95% CI 1.09, 2.29) among area residents.…”

“… 17 Convincing epidemiologic data has linked air pollution exposure with increased incidence of viral respiratory infections like upper respiratory tract (URI) infections, 18 , 19 bronchitis, 20 and lower respiratory tract infections (LTRI) 21 , 22 such as pneumonia 23 , 24 and bronchiolitis. 25 , 26 Similarly, temperature, 27 , 28 humidity, 29 and extreme weather events 30–32 have also been directly and indirectly associated with respiratory infections.…”

Naming Human Diseases: Ethical Principles of Curating Exclusive Substitute for Inopportune Nosology

“…Human diseases are often given names by stakeholders outside of the medical sphere. As a counterexample, Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis , referred to as pneumoconiosis or silicosis, was coined by Everett M. Smith in 1935 [65,66]. Literally, the 45-letter neologism is “a form of a chronic lung disease caused by the inhalation of fine silicate or quartz dust”, according to the Oxford English Dictionary Online (OED Online).…”