Breathing Easy

May 14, 2007

Short-term and long-term health effects after the Griffith Park and Santa Catalina Island fires

Los Angeles - As the Griffith Park and Santa Catalina Island fires heat up fire season, physicians at the Keck School of Medicine of USC advise residents who live near these or future wildfires to take precautionary measures to prevent exacerbating their health conditions.

“People who live in the immediate vicinity of a wildfire and have airway problems like asthma or emphysema should be careful of the particulate matter in the air resulting from the fire,” says Richard Barbers, M.D., professor of clinical pulmonary medicine at the Keck School of Medicine. “These people should stay indoors as much as possible during the days following the fire. If they are going to go outside, they should consider wearing a protective mask.”

Allergy or hay fever sufferers may also feel the effects of the fires. “If the winds pick up, allergic conditions could worsen. We’re looking at a drier climate this season and the Santa Ana winds could stir up pollen, dust and soot into the air.”

A recent study by USC found that non-asthmatic children living in wildfire-endangered regions of Southern California suffer as much as those with asthma. The study was published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine in December 2006.

“In our study, children with asthma were more likely to take preventive action, such as wearing masks or staying indoors during the fire,” says Nino Künzli, M.D.,Ph.D., associate professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “It appears that taking preventive action might indeed have reduced the health problems. The effects were clearly dependent on the duration of the smoke exposure with strongest effects among those living in the smoke environments for up to two weeks.”

While it is difficult to rigorously evaluate the effects of potentially protective measures such as wearing masks or staying indoors in such a study as this, the data do imply that simple protective measures as promoted by public agencies appears to reduce the health consequences, suggests Künzli. Also, strenuous physical activities outdoors should be avoided.

As some of what they found was to be expected- increased nose, eye, throat irritations, for instance- what was surprising was that the relative increase in symptoms tended to be strongest among those without asthma.

“One thing this study shows us is that during severe wildfires, children who do not have asthma may be experiencing what it is like to live with asthma,” he says. “That’s not to say that asthmatics weren’t affected. In fact, for several symptoms, we saw that asthmatics have as many health problems during times without fire smoke than what non-asthmatics reported for the days with the highest levels of smoke.”