Bushfire smoke linked to deaths of more than 400 people last summer
The shocking hidden toll of summer’s bushfires has been revealed, with hundreds of deaths linked to smoke inhalation. While The Australian Red Cross has admitted it has so far handed out $83 million of the $216 million in donations it received.
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At least 120 Victorians deaths have been linked to smoke inhalation from last summer’s bushfires, a royal commission into the natural disasters has heard.
It comes after thick smoke haze blanketed parts of Victoria in January as fires raged in East Gippsland and in the state’s north east.
Wind changes also brought the smoke to Melbourne and air quality in the city and suburbs dropped to hazardous levels.
Speaking at the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements on Tuesday morning, health experts warned of the impact of the massive fires still being felt in communities.
Menzies Institute for Medical Research Associate Professor Fay Johnston said research by the institute had linked 445 deaths in the country to smoke from the bushfire season.
Of these 120 were in Victoria while more than 1000 people were admitted to hospitals and emergency departments.
She said researchers had charted the relationship between hospital data and PM2.5 particle levels that had soared over populated areas.
“Although death is a really rare outcome from smoke if you’ve got a lot of smoke and a lot of people it becomes measurable,” she said.
“The vast majority of the impacts were in the eastern states.
“(There were) 3340 hospital admissions for heart and lung-related problems and 1373 additional presentations to an emergency department for asthma.”
Associate Professor Johnston said their data did not include modelling for other impacts such as loss of work and ambulance call-outs.
“We were able to work out a yearly cost of bushfire smoke for each summer season,” she said.
“Our estimates for the last summer season were $2 billion in health costs for premature loss of life and admissions to hospital.
“That was a major departure from anything we’d seen in the previous 20 years.”
Mallacoota P-12 College Principal said the bushfires which had isolated the town had created difficulties for children living in the area, with COVID-19 adding to pressure in the community.
“For Mallacoota it has been a double whammy,” he said.
The Australian Red Cross also told the commission it had received $216 million in donations and so far handed out $83 million, with the majority of this going to NSW and Victoria.
Director Noel Clement said the charity had struggled with hundreds of fraudulent claims, cyber attacks and limited access to information to identify victims.
“There’s been no single or shared list that we’ve been able to access.”
“One of the most significant challenges for us has been lack of access to good information to be able to verify the people we are paying are those who have been impacted.
“We had very significant cyber activity from the outset. The latest number I’ve seen is close to 900.”
Mr Clement said it was important that agencies had a reliable point of information so they could provide support quickly.
“We registered about 65,000 people and about 50,000 people we provided some form of support to,” he said.