Biomass Burning as a Driver of Human Exposure to Particulate Matter in the Amazon Region:

ISEE-0772 Background and Objective: The Amazon region has experienced a large number of forest fires in the past years; mainly in the peak of the dry season, during July to October, with a considerable increase of particulate matter loading. In the past the Southern Amazon was the main forest burning region due to the deforestation process. Nowadays the expansion of cattle ranching and the extensive soil beans in the western Amazon region has increased the atmospheric aerosol loading. The aim of this study is to evaluate the environmental and health indicators associated with particulate matter from biomass burning in susceptible age groups in the western Amazon region. Methods: The study was carried out in the municipality of Porto Velho/Rondônia using as health indicator the daily hospital admissions due to respiratory conditions in children under 10 years old and elderly people. An ecological time series study using generalized additive models was carried out using daily levels of PM2.5 obtained from the CATT-BRAMS Model for the period of 2005. The results showed a high concentration of particles ≤2.5 μm in the atmosphere of Amazon region during the dry season reaching levels of 580 μg/m3. Results: For PM2.5 an increase of 10 μg/m3 was associated with an increment of 1.0%; 1.5%; 1.6% and 1.3% of hospitalization due to respiratory diseases in children since the current day until three days after exposure. For elderly people the associations were not statistically significant, this could be explained partially by the small number of elderly from remote areas that get to reach the hospital in an urban area. Conclusion: These results show that the exposure to fine particles from biomass burning may generate health problems for some age groups. However, the distance from hospitals to the most affected burning areas should be carefully examined.