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There are few long-term studies of respiratory health effects of landscape fires, despite increasing frequency and intensity due to climate change. We investigated the association between exposure to coal mine fire PM_2.5 and fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) concentration 7.5 years later.

Adult residents of Morwell, who were exposed to the 2014 Hazelwood mine fire over 6 weeks, and unexposed residents of Sale, participated in the Hazelwood Health Study Respiratory Stream in 2021, including measurements of FeNO concentration, a marker of eosinophilic airway inflammation. Individual exposure to coal mine fire PM_2.5 was modelled and mapped to time-location diaries. The effect of exposure to PM_2.5 on log-transformed FeNO in exhaled breath was investigated using multivariate linear regression models in the entire sample and stratified by potentially vulnerable subgroups …