The immediate effects of winter storms and power outages on multiple health outcomes and the time windows of vulnerability

Lin, Shao; Zhang, Wangjian; Sheridan, Scott C.; Mongillo, Melanie; DiRienzo, Stephen; Stuart, Neil; Stern, Eric; Birkhead, Guthrie S.; Dong, Guang‐Hui; Wu, Shaowei; Chowdhury, Sadia; Primeau, Michael; Hao, Yuantao; Romeiko, Xiaobo Xue

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2021.110924

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…While prior studies have incorporated NYS POLs in health analyses, 34 , 35 we uniquely stratified according to urbanicity, which revealed different patterns of exposure and outcomes. Urban regions of the state, while experiencing fewer outages than rural regions of the state, comprise over 90% of the pediatric injury hospitalizations in the state.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Power outages and pediatric unintentional injury hospitalizations in New York State

Northrop,

Flores,

et al. 2023

Environmental Epidemiology

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Background: In the past decade, electrical power disruptions (outages) have increased in the United States, especially those attributable to weather events. These outages have a range of health impacts but are largely unstudied in children. Here, we investigated the association between outages and unintentional injury hospitalizations, a leading cause of childhood morbidity. Methods: The study setting was New York State (NYS) from 2017 to 2020. Outage exposure was defined as ≥10%, ≥20%, and ≥50% of customers from a power operating locality without power, ascertained from NYS Department of Public Service records and stratified by rural, urban non-New York City (NYC), and NYC regions. Outcome daily block group-level pediatric injury hospitalization data was from the Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS). We leveraged a case-crossover study design with logistic conditional regression. Results: We identified 23,093 unintentional injury hospitalizations in children <18 years with complete block group and exposure data. Most hospitalizations occurred in urban regions (90%), whereas outages were more likely in rural than urban areas. In urban non-NYC regions, outages ≥4 hours were associated with 30% increased odds of all-cause unintentional injury hospitalizations when ≥50% of customers were without power. Analyses by injury subtype revealed increasing point estimates as the proportion of customers exposed increased. These results, however, had wide confidence intervals. Conclusions: Outage exposure differed significantly across rural, urban non-NYC, and NYC regions across New York. Especially at the highest outage threshold, we observed an increased risk of pediatric unintentional injury hospitalizations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Power outages and pediatric unintentional injury hospitalizations in New York State

Northrop,

Flores,

et al. 2023

Environmental Epidemiology

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“…Several studies show an association between low temperatures and increased mortality (Analitis et al, 2008), with no evidence of differences by sex (Folkerts et al, 2021; Yoneyama et al, 2021). Thus, colder seasons tend to accumulate higher numbers of epidemic outbreaks and infectious respiratory diseases (Mäkinen et al, 2009), and winter storms are associated with increased rates of hospitalisation for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, or for food and waterborne diseases (Lin et al, 2021). Low temperatures have a particular impact on those aged over 64 years, especially in rural and economically depressed areas (Grigorieva & Revich, 2021; Weilnhammer et al, 2021; Yoneyama et al, 2021) and on children under 5, who are very vulnerable to certain infectious diseases that occur more frequently in the coldest months (López et al, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disaster, demographics, and vulnerability: Interrogating the long‐term effects of an extreme weather event

García-Hernández

2022

Geographical Research

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Climate risk events act on existing inequalities, causing unequal damage across social groups and showing that established vulnerability should be a key consideration in preventing and mitigating the consequences of weather extremes. The disastrous snowfalls that affected Asturias in Northern Spain in the winter of 1888 provide an intriguing and useful historical example of why such consideration is vital. This article is based on analysis of church records and population censuses of 22 mountain parishes over a 21-year period. It examines the long-term sociodemographic impacts of that weather event and reveals dramatic changes in fertility, mortality, and nuptiality. Marriages and births decreased by 67% in the 2 years following the snowstorms, when the highest levels of mortality were reached. The excess mortality especially affected those adults over 70, infants under 5, and, most notably, women. A livelihood crisis was at the base of these long-term effects. Those demographic impacts point to the event's severity and show that the repercussions of a disaster go far beyond deaths and material losses and are deeply rooted in social factors. These findings reinforce the idea that reconstructing old disastrous episodes is of great social and scientific interest now. That is because, as governments and others are progressively paying more attention to the possibilities of adaptation to global change, there is greater appreciation of the fact that delving into the long-term impacts of past natural disasters can guide our main future strategies.

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“…exposure associated with poorer cognitive function and memory in the elderly 55 . Winter storms in New York State were associated with increased morbidity from CVD, respiratory illness, and food-and water-borne diseases (stronger effects jointly with power outages) 56 and with higher COPD hospitalizations (power outages mediating a large share of the effect) 57 .…”

Section: Extreme Cold: "Everything Gets Worse If You Don't Have Elect...mentioning

confidence: 99%

2021 Climate and Health Review – Uncharted Territory: Extreme Weather Events and Morbidity

Sheehan

2022

Int J Health Serv

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Extreme weather events (EWEs) affected health in every world region during 2021, placing the planet in “uncharted territory.” Portraying the human impacts of EWEs is part of a health frame that suggests public knowledge of these risks will spur support for needed policy change. The health frame has gained traction since the Paris COP21 (United Nations Climate Change Conference) and arguably helped to achieve modest progress at the Glasgow COP26. However, reporting rarely covers the full picture of health impacts from EWEs, instead focusing on cost of damages, mortality, and displacement. This review summarizes data for 30 major EWEs of 2021 and, based on the epidemiological literature, discusses morbidity-related exposures for four hazards that marked the year: wildfire smoke; extreme cold and power outages; extreme, precipitation-related flooding; and drought. A very large likely burden of morbidity was found, with particularly widespread exposure to risk of respiratory outcomes (including interactions with COVID-19) and mental illnesses. There is need for a well-disseminated global annual report on EWE morbidity, including affected population estimates and evolving science. In this way, the public health frame may be harnessed to bolster evidence for the broader and promising frame of “urgency and agency” for climate change action.

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The immediate effects of winter storms and power outages on multiple health outcomes and the time windows of vulnerability

Cited by 15 publications

References 32 publications

Power outages and pediatric unintentional injury hospitalizations in New York State

Power outages and pediatric unintentional injury hospitalizations in New York State

Disaster, demographics, and vulnerability: Interrogating the long‐term effects of an extreme weather event

2021 Climate and Health Review – Uncharted Territory: Extreme Weather Events and Morbidity

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