Health Impacts of Ambient Biomass Smoke in Tasmania, Australia

The island state of Tasmania has marked seasonal variations of fine particulate matter (PM ) concentrations related to wood heating during winter, planned forest fires during autumn and spring, and bushfires during summer. Biomass smoke causes considerable health harms and associated costs. We estim...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health 2020-05, Vol.17 (9), p.3264
Main Authors: Borchers-Arriagada, Nicolas, Palmer, Andrew J, Bowman, David M J S, Williamson, Grant J, Johnston, Fay H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air Pollutants - toxicity
Air pollution
Algorithms
Australia
Autumn
Biomass
Costs
Emergency medical services
Emissions
Fires
Forest & brush fires
Heaters
Heating
Humans
Outdoor air quality
Particulate emissions
Particulate matter
Particulate Matter - toxicity
Population
Public health
Seasonal variations
Smoke
Summer
Tasmania
Weather
Wildfires
Winter
Wood
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Summary:The island state of Tasmania has marked seasonal variations of fine particulate matter (PM ) concentrations related to wood heating during winter, planned forest fires during autumn and spring, and bushfires during summer. Biomass smoke causes considerable health harms and associated costs. We estimated the historical health burden from PM attributable to wood heater smoke (WHS) and landscape fire smoke (LFS) in Tasmania between 2010 and 2019. We calculated the daily population level exposure to WHS- and LFS-related PM and estimated the number of cases and health costs due to premature mortality, cardiorespiratory hospital admissions, and asthma emergency department (ED) visits. We estimated 69 deaths, 86 hospital admissions, and 15 asthma ED visits, each year, with over 74% of impacts attributed to WHS. Average yearly costs associated with WHS were of AUD$ 293 million and AUD$ 16 million for LFS. The latter increased up to more than AUD$ 34 million during extreme bushfire seasons. This is the first study to quantify the health impacts attributable to biomass smoke for Tasmania. We estimated substantial impacts, which could be reduced through replacing heating technologies, improving fire management, and possibly implementing integrated strategies. This would most likely produce important and cost-effective health benefits.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph17093264