Australian wildfire smoke stokes health fears in cities

Fire alarms have been sounding in high-rise buildings across downtown Sydney and Melbourne as dense smoke from distant wildfires confuse electronic sensors. Modern government office blocks in Australian capital Canberra have been closed because air inside is too dangerous for civil servants to brea. sun has glowed an eerie red behind a brown shrouded sky for weeks over Australian metropolitan areas that usually rank high in world’s most livable cities indexes.

It’s an unprecedented dilemma for Australians accustomed to blue skies and sunny days that has raised fears for long-term health consequences if prolonged exposure to choking smoke becomes new summer rm. Similar concerns over smoke are emerging in or regions of globe being impacted by more fires tied to climate change, including Western U.S.

“I’m going to give birth any day w, literally, and I’m going to have a newborn baby that I’m going to protect from all this,” said Emma Mauch, a pregnant Canberra mor.

Her friend, Sonia Conr, described struggle of keeping her own energetic 3-year-old daughter contained inside ir Canberra house with windows and doors sealed by tape as outside temperature exceeded 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit). It’s a choice between airflow in stifling heat or keeping potentially toxic smoke out.

“My daughter hasn’t shown any sort of symptoms, let’s say. For me, I can feel it in my lungs, my throat has felt weird,” Conr said.

“It doesn’t seem to be stopping her, but long-term effects? Who kws? She’s 3. Who kws what’s going to happen?” she ded.

Slovenian tennis player Dalila Jakupovic fell to her knees in a coughing fit on Wednesday while competing in a qualifying match for Australian Open in Melbourne.

“I've never experienced something like this,” Jakupovic told Australian Brocasting Corp.

“We are used to pollution — like, we play in China and more polluted countries — but this smoke is something different that for sure we're t used to.”

Canberra as well as Australia’s two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, have at various times in recent weeks rated as most polluted cities in world, although some argue industrial pollutants in places such as New Delhi are more dangerous than wood smoke.

fires have claimed at least 27 lives since September, destroyed more than 2,600 homes and razed more than 10.3 million hectares (25.5 million acres), mostly in New South Wales state. area burned is larger than U.S. state of Indiana.

Hospital missions have increased in smoke-affected cities, with some patients suffering asthma for first time in ir lives. government has responded by distributing 3.5 million free particle-excluding masks.

Acting Australian Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said he was discussing with government launching a study of long-term health implications of wildfire smoke.

Bruce Thompson, president of Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, is among respiratory disease experts who predict increases in heart and lung diseases as well as some cancers if climate change makes prolonged exposure to wildfire smoke an annual phemen.

“We’re breathing in stuff that lungs don’t like that les to significant changes, especially people who are predisposed to respiratory conditions,” Thompson said.

Thompson, who suffers itchy eyes and a running se from smoke at home in Melbourne, said comparisons could be drawn between current crisis and a wildfire that ignited coal in open-cut Hazelwood mine near town of Morwell in Victoria state in 2014. fire burned for 45 days, blanketing Morwell and its 14,000 residents in thick smoke and coal dust.

That exposure was still taking tolls on health of Morwell community and wider Latrobe Valley, particularly young, Thompson said.

Brian Oliver, he of Respiratory Molecular Pathogenesis at University of Techlogy Sydney, likened prolonged and repeated exposure to such wildfire smoke to smoking cigarettes.

Oliver predicted increases in smoker diseases across Australia if wildfire smoke became more common in a drier and hotter future.

NASA says unprecedented masses of Australian smoke that have drifted east across Pacific Ocean have returned after circumnavigating globe.

In U.S., an estimated 20,000 premature deaths w occur annually due to chronic wildfire smoke exposure. That’s expected to double by end of century, according to scientists funded by NASA, as tens of millions of people get exposed to massive “smoke waves” emanating from blazes in Western states.

Experts say an increase in serious health problems in California may be almost inevitable for vulnerable residents as disasters become more commonplace.

Research suggests children, elderly and those with existing health problems are most at risk.

Short-term exposure to wildfire smoke can worsen existing asthma and lung disease, leing to emergency room treatment or hospitalization, studies have shown. Increases in doctor visits or hospital treatment for respiratory infections, bronchitis and pneumonia in orwise healthy people also have been found during and after wildfires.

Some studies also have found increases in ER visits for heart attacks and strokes in people with existing heart disease on heavy smoke days during previous California wildfires, echoing research on potential risks from urban air pollution.

For most healthy people, exposure to wildfire smoke is just an anyance, causing burning eyes, scratchy throats or chest discomfort that all disappear when smoke clears.

Wood smoke contains some of same toxic chemicals as urban air pollution, along with tiny particles of vapour and soot 30 times thinner than a human hair. se can infiltrate bloodstream, potentially causing inflammation and blood vessel dam even in healthy people, research on urban air pollution has shown. Studies have linked heart attacks and cancer with long-term exposure to air pollution.

Wher exposure to wildfire smoke carries same risks is uncertain, and determining harm from smog versus wildfire smoke can be tricky. re is little kwn about long-term effects of wildfire smoke because of difficulties in studying populations years after a wildfire.

Michael Abramson, professor of epidemiology and preventive medicine at Melbourne's Monash University, is a co-author of a report on ongoing investigation of health impacts of Hazelwood blaze.

Abramson urges a national study of health impacts of latest wildfires, saying his research focused on a much smaller population of 74,000 people in Latrobe Valley.

“We’re w seeing substantial exposure extending over weeks to cities that have millions of inhabitants, so I think it’s very likely that re might be more subtle effects that we haven’t been able to detect,” Abramson said.