Ongoing fires in Australia raise fears for long-term health consequences if prolonged exposure to choking smoke becomes the new summer norm.
The fires have claimed at least 28 lives since September, destroyed more than 2,600 homes and razed more than 10.3 million hectares , mostly in New South Wales state. The area burned is larger than the U.S. state of Indiana.by one to five on Wednesday when it reclassified the death of a fire management contractor in a traffic accident in November as a victim of the current wildfire crisis.
Acting Australian Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said he was discussing with the government launching a study of the long-termBruce Thompson, president of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, is among the 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 phenomenon.
Thompson, who suffers itchy eyes and a running nose from smoke at home in Melbourne, said comparisons could be drawn between the current crisis and a wildfire that ignited coal in the open-cut Hazelwood mine near the town of Morwell in Victoria state in 2014. The fire burned for 45 days, blanketing Morwell and its 14,000 residents in thick smoke and coal dust.
Brian Oliver, head of the Respiratory Molecular Pathogenesis at University of Technology Sydney, likened prolonged and repeated exposure to such wildfire smoke to smoking cigarettes.
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