Ambient particulate matter, landscape fire smoke, and emergency ambulance dispatches in Sydney, Australia

- Daily emergency ambulance dispatches (EADs) were associated with ambient PM2.5
- The associations were not different on days affected by landscape fire smoke
- EADs have potential utility in surveillance for the public health impacts of PM2.5

BackgroundEmergency ambulance dispatches (EAD) are a novel outcome for evaluating the public health impacts of air pollution. We assessed the relationships between ambient particulate matter (PM) from all sources, PM from landscape fire smoke (LFS), and EADs likely to be associated with cardiorespiratory problems in the Sydney greater metropolitan region for an 11-year period from 2004 to 2015.MethodsEAD codes are assigned at the time of the call to emergency services using standard computer assisted algorithms. We assessed EADs coded as: breathing problems, chest pain, stroke or cerebrovascular accident (stroke), cardiac or respiratory arrest and death (arrest), and heart or defibrillator problems (other heart problems). Using a daily times series study design with a generalized linear Poisson regression model we quantified the association between EAD and daily PM2.5 from all sources (PM2.5,all) and PM2.5 primarily due to LFS (PM2.5,LFS).ResultsIncreases of 10 μg·m− 3 in PM2.5,all were positively associated with same day EAD for breathing problems (RR = 1.03, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.04), arrest (RR = 1.03, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.06), and chest pain (RR = 1.01 CI 1.00 to 1.02) but not with other outcomes. Increases of 10 μg·m− 3 PM2.5,LFS were also positively associated with breathing problems on the same day (RR = 1.04, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.05) and other heart problems at lag of two days (RR = 1.05, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.09).ConclusionsEmergency dispatches for breathing problems are associated with PM2.5,all and PM2.5,LFS and provide a sensitive end point for continued research and surveillance activities investigating the impacts of daily fluctuations in ambient PM2.5.