Australian bushfire season’s long-term health effects subject of UTS study
28 June 2020
Published by https://www.abc.net.au
AUSTRALIA – The flight instructor had always been active, but physical activity had become necessary to maintain the parts of her lungs that remained intact after smoke inhalation.
Ms Fitzsimmons, from Bathurst in the New South Wales central west, was pulled from a burning aircraft by the student she was teaching after a crash landing in nearby Orange in 2018.
The plane crashed into a fence and flipped over, trapping Ms Fitzsimmons inside with burning fumes.
“It could have been a lot worse,” she said.
Her recovery routine, involving daily inhaling devices and exercise, was affected by last season’s bushfires.
Although the nearby Gosper’s Mountain mega blaze in the Blue Mountains did not reach Bathurst, apocalyptic blankets of smoke did.
The regional community’s air quality station recorded hazardous air quality readings on multiple occasions over summer, choking residents who dared walk outside.
“I had a young exchange student living in my house and she had the app, and she would tell me every day what the air quality was like, and then we would decide whether we could risk going out for a bicycle ride or a walk,” Ms Fitzsimmons said.
She did not risk it very often.
Gap in knowledge about bushfire smoke
The long-term health effects of the prolonged exposure to bushfire smoke is now being investigated by the University of Technology Sydney and the Centenary Institute.
Phil Hansbro applied for a Federal Government grant to carry out the research.
He said there was a significant gap in knowledge in the space of long-term impacts.
He said the study would also look at preventative measures.
“It is a lot easier to stop the impact of inflammation as it is happening than it is to try and reverse the effects, but we will try and do both of those,” he said
He said it was necessary to identify the risks and develop treatments if Australia was going to deal with more bushfires — which scientists have forewarned of.
Ms Fitzsimmons was eager to see results from the research, and hoped those without compromised respiratory systems would benefit, too.
“Even people without a prior condition need to be concerned about what they might have been breathing in at that time,” she said.
The Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre is slated to release its bushfire outlook for spring in July.
