Study: Canadians Most at Risk for Respiratory Death from Wildfire

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An international study has found Canadians have the highest relative risk of respiratory mortality resulting from wildfire pollution, with Regina and Saskatoon among the worst hit.

An international study has found Canadians have the highest relative risk of respiratory mortality resulting from wildfire pollution, with Regina and Saskatoon among the worst hit.

Published in The Lancet Planetary Health, this unprecedented multi-city, multi-country collaboration analyzed the impact of short term exposure to air pollution on mortality and assessed the impact of forest fire smoke on mortality by pooling data from 749 individual cities in 43 countries over a 17-year period.

Éric Lavigne, Adjunct Professor in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine, is one of the international authors behind the study. He provided some insight into the findings.

We used a chemical transport model to estimate daily wildfire derived fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure, and a time series model was used to examine the association between exposure and mortality in each city.

Read more at: University of Ottawa

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