GEOB370 Final Project

Wildfire Smoke and Public Health in BC

Spatial Analysis in Exposure Assessment and Health Implications

• Abstract
• Introduction
• Data
• Methodology
• Results I
• Results II
  
• Conclusions
• Limitations
• Future study
• Acknowledgements

Conclusions

The following conclusions can be drawn from the results of the project:

•  Different methods of exposure assessment can produce results varying to different extents and in different ways.

• Association has been observed between respiratory health responses indicated by cumulated counts of symptom releasing drug prescriptions and exposures to PM 2.5 during wildfire episodes assessed based on monitoring station measurements.

• The prediction model, while produces exposure assessment of a much finer resolution, has results different from the actual measurements of monitoring stations and the differences are more severe in some areas than the others. In addition, the association between predictions and health responses is weak.

• The distances from the nearest monitoring stations affect the performance of the regression. From this point, it may also suggest a need for more numbers and more widely distributed monitors to better detect the association between wildfire smoke PM exposure and respiratory health responses.