Air Pollution and Emergency Department Visit Patterns Following the 2023 Halifax Regional Municipality Wildfire

Abstract

Canada experienced a record-breaking wildfire season in 2023, resulting in thousands of evacuations in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) alone. This study examined changes in particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations and emergency department (ED) visit patterns, focusing on specific respiratory-related ED diagnoses, and different demographic groups surrounding the 2023 HRM wildfire. A retrospective observational design was used to analyze PM2.5 data from the Lake Major provincial ambient air quality monitoring station and ED visit data from Health Data Nova Scotia. Weekly ED visit counts, ED visit proportions for specific respiratory-related diagnoses from Izaak Walton Killam Health Centre (IWK), and PM2.5 concentrations were compared between these pre, during, and post wildfire periods using statistical methods.