Measures of forest fire smoke exposure and their associations with respiratory health outcomes

Purpose of review Exposure to forest fire smoke is episodic, which makes its health effects challenging to study. We review the newest contributions to a growing literature on acute respiratory outcomes. Recent findings Smoke exposure was associated with increases in self-reported symptoms, medication use, outpatient physician visits, emergency room visits, hospital admissions, and mortality. The associations were strongest for the outcomes most specific to asthma. Summary Studies with varied approaches to exposure assessment and varied measures of respiratory outcomes were consistent among themselves, and consistent with most previous work.