Where There’s Smoke, There’s Anxiety
“Many people are already dealing with mild or moderate mental health symptoms. Now imagine they wake up and see the sky covered in smoke, they’re likely going to feel even more anxious,” says the study’s lead author Qingyang Zhu, a postdoctoral fellow in the Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health at Rollins.
The NIH-funded study, published recently in Nature Mental Health, is among the largest and most comprehensive on the association between wildfires and anxiety disorders.
Analyzing satellite-driven data and nearly 1.9 million emergency department visits across five states (California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Utah), researchers showed wildfire smoke events—when wildfires become the main source of ambient pollution within a ZIP code—were associated with a 6.3 percent increase in mental health–related ED visits.
“The scary thing about climate change is it doesn’t have a clear boundary; you fear a lot about the unknown,” says co-author Yang Liu, chair and Gangarosa Distinguished Professor in Environmental Health at Rollins.
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