Introduction by Croakey: Momentum is growing for a major re-think about managing clean air in buildings, recognising its importance for health, productivity, education, and wellbeing, according to organisers of an event to be held at Parliament House in Canberra on 18 March.
“Major economies, including Australia, are advancing the science, health benefits, policy and regulation, engineering, technology, and public awareness of indoor air quality,” say organisers of ‘The Science of Clean Indoor Air: advances, gaps and opportunities’ event.
“Actions are being taken in the buildings of forward-thinking corporations, businesses, public schools, government buildings, and public transport across the world. From Geneva to the White House, commitments to a major re-think on indoor air quality have been made and momentum is growing.”
The event is organised by the Australian Academy of Science, Burnet Institute and CSIRO. Presenters will include Anna-Maria Arabia, Chief Executive of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor Brendan Crabb AC, Director and CEO of the Burnet Institute, Professor Doug Hilton AO, CEO of CSIRO, Distinguished Professor Lidia Morawska, Professor and Director of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health, Katherine Walsh, Sustainability, Energy & Environment Program Director, Boston Public Schools, and Associate Professor David Boyd, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights and the Environment.
The Parliament House event will follow a Clean Indoor Air Forum, to be held that day at ANU.
Meanwhile, researchers from UNSW Sydney preview their presentation below, urging Australian governments to learn from overseas efforts, and become much more proactive in planning to protect communities from hazardous air pollution during the inevitable increase in bushfires.
This is particularly important for people with health conditions, people with disabilities and First Nations communities, write Professor Donna Green and Janice Wormworth.
Donna Green and Janice Wormworth write:
Some Australians are acutely conscious of the risks that bushfire smoke poses to themselves and their families.
In recent years, media reports have told of a family in Sydney pulling their child out of school before the end of term and heading to NSW’s South Coast, calling themselves ‘smoke refugees’.
A report by Asthma Australia included a comment from a woman who relocated to Perth after experiencing a month of smoke during the Black Summer bushfires, due to an increase in her asthma symptoms and out of concern for her newborn.
At the same time, many people had difficulty buying high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters due to shortages.
Given the size and scale of the threats involved, it is ineffective and inequitable to rely upon individuals alone to prepare for dealing with the health hazards of hazardous air pollution.
And yet, despite knowing that it’s not ‘if’ but ‘when’ the same – or worse – air pollution from massive bushfires returns to Australia – remarkably little has been done by any level of Australian government to prepare.
Taking a purely economic approach, it’s nonsensical not to plan for ‘the next time’.
Air pollution from the Black Summer caused 429 premature deaths, and thousands of emergency department visits and hospital admissions. That cost AU$1.95 billion in healthcare alone, even before we consider the far higher dollar cost of lost productivity.
An equity lens further highlights the need for precautionary action. To move, or even to buy a HEPA filter, you need money and resources.
Those with the least are most likely to feel air pollution’s impacts on their health.
Unlike organised responses for flooding, Australian governments don’t yet have a strategy in place to allow people respite from harmful smoke pollution.
Learn from elsewhere
Early steps overseas suggest what’s possible.
During Canada’s record-breaking fire summer of 2023, people in Vancouver could seek temporary relief from smoke in designated community buildings. Canada’s federal government is helping some provinces identify more safe havens like these so they can prepare.
In California, $100 million in public funding will help transform community buildings into similar refuges during times of wildfires and extreme heat.
We too need to address this neglected hazard of persistent, harmful air pollution from smoke. If we prepare now, we can identify buildings that could already work as clean air spaces, and upgrade others to serve this role.
Importantly, we must also identify people who need these refuges most. Public health messaging could directly reach those with asthma or other health conditions that make them vulnerable to smoke. An online app, for example, could alert these vulnerable groups about forecasted hazardous air quality, and even direct them to nearby cleaner air spaces.
Specific needs of people with disabilities and First Nations communities need to be identified and prioritised as they will have specific concerns about how and where they might be able to be relocated to. These concerns have some precedent in Australia for other natural hazards, such as cyclones, and for smoke in Canada.
For those unable to leave home, or who need 24-hour clean air, lending libraries for air filters, like small-scale programs operating in United States communities in New Mexico and Montana, could help. Filters are made available at no cost to smoke-sensitive people on a first-come, first served basis during the fire season.
They would also save governments significant resources: it’s much cheaper to keep people healthier at home than to let their health deteriorate and end up overwhelming emergency departments.
Early analysis suggests that keeping vulnerable people out of emergency departments in times of high demand would translate into millions in savings. This preventative strategy would also reduce suffering, and the risks of frequent trips to hospital such as catching COVID-19.
At the Science of Clean Air event in Canberra on the 18th March, over 40 different organisations will be asking politicians to not only identify indoor air quality guidelines, but also recognise the need to prepare for the next Black Summer.
A ‘neglected hazard’ that currently falls between the cracks, the health of risk bushfire smoke should be recognised in policy and planning in a range of government departments and included in the next iteration of the National Health and Climate Strategy.
Author details
Donna Green is a Professor of Interdisciplinary Environmental Science in the Faculty of Science, and a lead investigator for the Digital Grid Futures Institute, University of New South Wales, Australia.
Janice Wormworth is a research fellow at the Environmental Science Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Australia.
Further reading
Croakey, 2023: Landmark event highlights indoor air quality as important health concern
Croakey’s archive of articles on air pollution
