Increased respiratory morbidity associated with exposure to a mature volcanic plume from a large Icelandic fissure eruption.

• Published in: Nature Communications
• Main Authors: Carlsen, Hanne Krage, Ilyinskaya, Evgenia, Baxter, Peter J, Schmidt, Anja, Thorsteinsson, Throstur, Pfeffer, Melissa Anne, Barsotti, Sara, Dominici, Francesca, Finnbjornsdottir, Ragnhildur Gudrun, Jóhannsson, Thorsteinn, Aspelund, Thor, Gislason, Thorarinn, Valdimarsdóttir, Unnur, Briem, Haraldur, Gudnason, Thorolfur
• Other Authors: 1Environment and Natural Resources, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland. [e-mail]. 2Section of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. [e-mail]. 3School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. [e-mail]. 4Cambridge Institute of Public Health, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge, UK. 5Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. 6Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. 7Environment and Natural Resources, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland. 8Icelandic Meteorological Office, Reykjavík, Iceland. 9Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. 10The Environment Agency of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland. 11School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland. 12Landspitali - the National University Hospital, Reykjavík, Iceland. 13Centre of Public Health Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland. 14Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. 15Chief Epidemiologist, Directorate of Health, Centre for Health Threats and Communicable Diseases, Reykjavík, Iceland. #Contributed equally.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 2021
• Subjects: Gosmökkur; Eldgos; Öndunarfærasjúkdómar; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Volcanic Eruptions; Holuhraun; Reykjavík; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2336/621845; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22432-5

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked Download The 2014-15 Holuhraun eruption in Iceland was the largest fissure eruption in over 200 years, emitting prodigious amounts of gas and particulate matter into the troposphere. Reykjavík, the capital area of Iceland (250 km from eruption site) was exposed to air pollution events from advection of (i) a relatively young and chemically primitive volcanic plume with a high sulphur dioxide gas (SO2) to sulphate PM (SO42-) ratio, and (ii) an older and chemically mature volcanic plume with a low SO2/SO42- ratio. Whereas the advection and air pollution caused by the primitive plume were successfully forecast and forewarned in public advisories, the mature plume was not. Here, we show that exposure to the mature plume is associated with an increase in register-measured health care utilisation for respiratory disease by 23% (95% CI 19.7-27.4%) and for asthma medication dispensing by 19.3% (95% CI 9.6-29.1%). Absence of public advisories is associated with increases in visits to primary care medical doctors and to the hospital emergency department. We recommend that operational response to volcanic air pollution considers both primitive and mature types of plumes. UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Icelandic Research fund (RANNIS) 152587051