Poor air quality is expected to be an ongoing issue for the ACT as long as bushfires continue in the region, with Canberraโs topography also contributing to the lingering smoke haze.
Professor Janette Lindesay from the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University (ANU), said Canberraโs location โ featuring iconic hills and ridges and a series of valleys โ lends itself to smoke โaccumulating and sitting in the atmosphereโ, which is then difficult to disperse.
โWe are getting a lot of high pressure system activities which means low wind speed, if any, so it doesnโt move the smoke,โ Professor Lindesay said.
โWe need to get some strong effective rain-producing systems coming through to move the air mass out and take the smoke with it.โ
For the most benefit, Professor Lindesay said the wind โhas to come from the north because thatโs the only place where there are no firesโ.
โWe have a crescent of fires around us and thatโs very unusual,โ she said. โFires are generally in one part or another, not everywhere at once around the ACT and they usually havenโt been around for so long.โ
With rain forecast for later this week, Professor Lindesay said it could prove beneficial in helping clear the air, however acknowledged it can bring its own problems with the smoke and dust that was in the air entering the water supply.
โWhen you get a big concentration of that โฆ that causes problems in terms of potability of the water and whether it is safe to drink,โ she said. It could also have an impact on fresh water and marine ecology.
In terms of the long-term impact of smoke, Professor Lindesay said โit is not really known what the long-term consequences of what this smoke will be and we may not know for decadesโ.
Environmental health expert, Professor Sotiris Vardoulakis, from the ANU said bushfire smoke is a major public health concern.
โThese very small particles in bushfire smoke can penetrate deep into the respiratory system inducing inflammation and even translocate into the blood stream,โ Professor Vardoulakis said.
โFor most people, it is like smoking a few cigarettes a day โ it is increasing the risk of developing lung and heart disease in their lifetime.โ
While communities have been impacted broadly by the bushfires, Professor Lindesay said the fires will also be a catalyst to further research.
She said while Australia already has a great deal of research going on about bushfires, โwhat I see emerging at the moment is a resurgence in interest in Indigenous burning and land practices and I think thatโs really importantโ.
โThereโs been a tendency to conduct science with a Western perspective โฆ and perhaps not enough attention has been paid to the ways that Indigenous people manage the landscape.โ
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