Climate change
Air pollution is the single greatest environmental cause of preventable disease and premature death in the world today. It ranks alongside unhealthy diets, inadequate physical activity, and tobacco smoking, as a major global risk factor for mortality. Globally, air pollution is responsible for approximately 7 million premature deaths each year. In Australia annual mortality is conservatively estimated to be more than 3,200 with a cost greater than AUD $6.2 billion from years of life lost. However, the full health and social impacts are much more extensive. This report explains why the effects of air pollution are so far reaching and, equally, why coordinated action to make air safer is one of the best investments in Australian health.
As the climate gets hotter and extreme weather events become more common, the health impacts associated with air pollution are expected to increase. More frequent and intense bushfires will result in increased particulate matter (PM) air pollution, emergency department attendances and health costs. Hotter temperatures are predicted to increase the concentration of aeroallergens (i.e., pollens), particulate matter air pollution, and other air pollutants such as fungi, mould, and windblown dust, with associated increased health burden. High temperatures and bushfires often coincide, producing a synergistic negative effect on health outcomes. Climate change is also expected to increase ground-level ozone, which is associated with a range of health issues including reduced lung function and increased hospital presentations and admission for asthma.
Summary of key recommendations:
1. The increasing risks posed by air pollution should be explicitly included in The National Adaptation Plan Issues Paper.
2. The National Adaptation Plan needs to take an equity-oriented approach to adapting to the impacts and disruption caused by climate change and worsening air pollution.
3. The National Adaptation Plan Issues Paper should include air quality as a crosssystem risk impacting a range of health, environment and economic systems.
4. Given the cross-system risks presented by air pollution, we advocate for a dedicated, comprehensive, inter-agency governance body for air pollution, such as exist for food and water safety.
5. We support the inclusion of co-benefits as a consideration in ‘Prioritising adaptation actions’ in The National Adaptation Plan Issues Paper.
6. The National Adaptation Plan Issues Paper should include communication, education and engagement under 3.3 Enablers of adaptation action.
As Australians, we think about landscape fires primarily in terms of bushfire disasters. But this is only part of the picture. In this webinar Fay Johnston, Director of the Centre for Safe Air and Professor at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, presented a lecture titled: Climate change, landscape fires, and human health: understanding fire phenotypes. A newly published global synthesis led by Professor Johnston describes seven ‘phenotypes’ of landscape fire around the world, each with distinct patterns in their health and environmental impacts. In this talk, Professor Johnston explains how a more nuanced model of landscape fire can help us to design interventions at individual, community, and regional levels to maximise the benefits and minimise the harms associated with fire in the landscape. Dr Amanda Wheeler chaired the session and moderated an open discussion on the subject.
Given the Centre’s remit, our response to the Strategy is provided in the context of our core focus on clean air. In principle, the Centre supports much of the Strategy content. The Strategy rightly attempts to tackle issues related to the health sector as an energy user and greenhouse gas emissions contributor, as well as the broader need for the health sector to advocate for and engage on programs which relate to public health protection from the effects of climate change. However, each of these require very different solutions, policies, programs and actions. The Centre feels that the Strategy, in draft form, omits important detail from both of these domains.
Join our newsletter
The Centre for Safe Air publishes a monthly newsletter reporting news events, funding opportunities, resources, publications and more. Subscribe to our mailing list to stay up to date.