ArticleEnvironmental health : a global access science source2011
Respiratory and mental health effects of wildfires: an ecological study in Galician municipalities (north-west Spain).
Article in Environmental health : a global access science source, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 71 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Effect of Fire Smoke Exposure on Firefighters' Lung Function: A Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Non-accidental health impacts of wildfire smoke.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2014Pooled it
- The Mental Health Impacts of Wildfire Exposure: A Scoping Review of the Quantitative Evidence.Current environmental health reports · 2026Article
- Burning issues: trends in newspaper coverage of wildfire events and health.Journal of public health (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Detecting Rising Wildfire Risks for South East England.Climate resilience and sustainability · 2025Article
- Intra-Continental Transport of Western Wildfire Smoke Heightens Health Risks Across North America.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Article
- The mental health and well-being effects of wildfire smoke: a scoping review.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Health Outcomes in Children Associated with Prenatal and Early-Life Exposures to Air Pollution: A Narrative Review.Toxics · 2022Review
- Mental health effects of the Gangwon wildfires.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Medication use in populations exposed to the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption: an interrupted time series analysis.BMJ open · 2022Article
- What can we do when the smoke rolls in? An exploratory qualitative analysis of the impacts of rural wildfire smoke on mental health and wellbeing, and opportunities for adaptation.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Climate change, trauma and mental health in Italy: a scoping review.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2022Article
- The Impact of Wildfires on Mental Health: A Scoping Review.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Exploring Pharmacists' Roles during the 2019-2020 Australian Black Summer Bushfires.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Mental Health Symptoms Unexpectedly Increased in Students Aged 11-19 Years During the 3.5 Years After the 2016 Fort McMurray Wildfire: Findings From 9,376 Survey Responses.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Article
- Psychological Symptoms Among Evacuees From the 2016 Fort McMurray Wildfires: A Population-Based Survey One Year Later.Frontiers in public health · 2021Article
- Wildfire and prescribed burning impacts on air quality in the United States.Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association (1995) · 2020Review
- Article
- After the Fort McMurray wildfire there are significant increases in mental health symptoms in grade 7-12 students compared to controls.BMC psychiatry · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDuring the summer of 2006, a wave of wildfires struck Galicia (north-west Spain), giving rise to a disaster situation in which a great deal of the territory was destroyed. Unlike other occasions, the wildfires in this case also threatened farms, houses and even human lives, with the result that the perception of disaster and helplessness was the most acute experienced in recent years. This study sought to analyse the respiratory and mental health effects of the August-2006 fires, using consumption of anxiolytics-hypnotics and drugs for obstructive airway diseases as indicators.
methodsWe conducted an analytical, ecological geographical- and temporal-cluster study, using municipality-month as the study unit. The independent variable was exposure to wildfires in August 2006, with municipalities thus being classified into the following three categories: no exposure; medium exposure; and high exposure. Dependent variables were: (1) anxiolytics-hypnotics; and (2) drugs for obstructive airway diseases consumption. These variables were calculated for the two 12-month periods before and after August 2006. Additive models for time series were used for statistical analysis purposes.
resultsThe results revealed a higher consumption of drugs for obstructive airway diseases among pensioners during the months following the wildfires, in municipalities affected versus those unaffected by fire. In terms of consumption of anxiolytics-hypnotics, the results showed a significant increase among men among men overall -pensioners and non-pensioners- in fire-affected municipalities.
conclusionsOur study indicates that wildfires have a significant effect on population health. The coherence of these results suggests that drug utilisation research is a useful tool for studying morbidity associated with environmental incidents.
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Registered trials
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