The Smoke Issue
The Smoke Issue
In the last 20 years, smoke management has become an important issue. Smoke from fuel reduction burning has drifted over the metropolitan area on a number of occasions and prompted public concern over air pollution. Despite careful planning to avoid this event, some smoke drift has occurred, mainly due to unforeseen wind changes.
Strict guidelines have been evolved to minimize the risk of this occurring, but the downside of these guidelines is that it is now extremely difficult for DEC to carry out fuel reduction burns in the region immediately to the east of the city. As a consequence, fuel loads in that area have built up to dangerous levels. The Bushfire Front is certain a major disaster, on the scale of the 2003 Canberra fires, or even worse, could happen here.
The issue has reached a point where it has become a stark choice for city dwellers; either accept a certain level of smoke drift over the city during the spring or autumn burning season, or endure much heavier levels of smoke and the social and economic consequences of a major bushfire disaster.
Some have argued that smoke from the burns poses a threat to public health. This is highly debatable. It is a fact that air pollution monitored by the Department of Environmental Protection has shown that pollution as a result of smoke has exceeded target levels only for a few hours on one or two occasions each year over the past 10 years. While there may be some inconvenience to certain groups, such as asthma sufferers, they have the means to alleviate the discomfort and can avoid contact with smoke, if warnings are provided.
In May, 2003, the Department of Environmental Protection released a report on a major study of air pollution in Perth in relation to public health (DEP Technical Series 114, Research on Health and Air Pollution in Perth: Morbidity and Mortality: A Case-Crossover Analysis 1992-1997). This report did not identify smoke from fuel reduction burning as a significant cause of air pollution in Perth. Rather, existing air pollution concerns centred around emissions from motor vehicles and industry. It is unfortunate that public concern about occasional instances of smoke from burns over Perth is stirred up by unbalanced media reporting. The common practice of only reporting one-sided comments from parties opposed to fuel reduction burning is not in the public interest.
Air pollution as a result of wildfires has also been studied in Sydney. According to the NSW Department of Health (HARP Newsletter No 2, December 1994) the January 1994 bushfires did not result in any significant increase in asthma hospital admissions at the time. The January 2005 Perth Hills bushfire which blanketed Perth with dense smoke for a whole day also did not cause an increase in hospital admissions because of asthma.