Fine particulate matter exposure and medication dispensing during and after a coal mine fire: A time series analysis from the Hazelwood Health Study

Associations between Respiratory Health Outcomes and Coal Mine Fire PM2.5 Smoke Exposure: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Gender stratification has generally found that women have stronger associations than males. Following the mine fire, we found that women had a slightly stronger association than men for the dispensing of respiratory medication [16]. Following wildfires, an increased risk of hospital admissions for asthma in females was reported by Delfino [11] and mixed results for different respiratory-related emergency department visits were found by Tinling [38].…”

“…Direct comparisons between our study and existing peer-reviewed literature are difficult given the limited published research regarding coal mine fire smoke exposures. Previous research conducted by the HHS showed an association between the dispensing of respiratory medications in the Latrobe Valley and mine fire-related PM 2.5 smoke exposure [16] and some comparison is possible with other studies that have investigated wildfire PM smoke exposures. Associations were found between wildfire PM 10 exposure following an American wildfire and survey-reported respiratory symptoms in children [31].…”

“…There is mixed evidence in the literature regarding the age group most susceptible to PM-related respiratory symptoms. Stronger associations were found in the 20–34 years group, relative to other ages, for the dispensing of respiratory medications following the Hazelwood mine fire [16]. Henderson [32] found stronger associations for middle-aged adults relative to older adults for respiratory physician visits following a wildfire.…”

“…Multiple studies have found associations between exposure to wildfire PM and adverse respiratory outcomes, including exacerbations of asthma and COPD, bronchitis and pneumonia [9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. Mine fire PM 2.5 has been associated with increased medication dispensing for respiratory health conditions [16] and studies have found that populations living in coal mining communities are at increased risk of respiratory health conditions, even in the absence of fire [17].…”

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in adults exposed to fine particles from a coal mine fire

“…The Hazelwood Health Study (HHS) was established to investigate potential longitudinal health outcomes in people who were exposed to smoke from the Hazelwood mine fire (www.hazelwoodhealthstudy.org.au). The HHS Hazelinks Stream which utilises administrative health datasets, has previously reported more COPD related emergency department presentations [16], medications dispensed for respiratory conditions [17] as well as visits to specialist respiratory services [18] during the mine fire period. The HHS Adult Survey, carried out 2.5 years after the mine fire, also identified higher risks of self-reported respiratory symptoms associated with individual-level mine fire PM 2.5 exposure [19].…”