This desktop project will evaluate the health risks of different types of smoke exposure combining the level (PM concentration), duration (hours, days) and frequency (per year or decade) of bushfire events.

This project will review published studies examining the health impacts of high-level exposure in firefighters; of long-term (chronic), low-level exposure in urban populations and in populations exposed to single long-term (several weeks), high-level exposure events, each with dose-response equations.

Using peer-reviewed equations, researchers will predict various health outcomes from a variety of exposure scenarios. The project will serve as a pilot study and lead toward a more detailed analysis of health outcomes in long-term cohort studies around Australia, as a function of mapped air quality surfaces over past decades.

(Image: NSW DCCEEW)