The health effects of the 2019-20 bushfires Submission to the

The health effects of the 2019-20 bushfires Submission to the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements Stephen Duckett, Will Mackey, and Anika Stobart The health effects of the 2019-20 bushfires Table of contents 1 The health impacts of the 2019-20 bushfires. [...] 14 Grattan Institute 2020 2 The health effects of the 2019-20 bushfires 1 The health impacts of the 2019-20 bushfires Hundreds of bushfires ravaged south-eastern Australia over the 2019- Figure 1.1: Fire danger in the lead-up to 2019-20 was high 20 summer, burning millions of hectares and billowing large plumes of Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI) in spring 2019 smoke into the atmosphere. [...] There had been extensive hazard reduction burns in the decade leading up to the 2019-20 summer, but dry and hot conditions limited the scope of hazard reduction burns in the winter before.5 By the spring of 2019, the Bureau of Meteorology reported that most of Australia had the highest fire danger weather on record (Figure 1.1).6 In early September the fire season had kicked in, just five months a. [...] The ACT was reported to have the worst air quality in the world at the start of January (Figure 1.4).19 Figure 1.4: Air pollution from the bushfires was many times the ‘safe’ level in the ACT and Victoria Victoria also had bad air pollution, particularly in January 2020. [...] Grattan Institute 2020 8 The health effects of the 2019-20 bushfires 1.5 The bushfires damaged people’s mental health Australians found that more than half (54 per cent) felt anxious or worried about the safety of themselves and others during the fires (see Bushfires destroy homes, livelihoods, and lives.