Impact of hazard reduction burns in Sydney 2016, a rapid health assessment 2016

In May 2016 there were hazard reductions burns conducted around Sydney causing smoky conditions and high PM2.5 concentrations for several days. This study assessed the impact of smoke-related PM2.5 on all-cause mortality and hospitalisations for cardiovascular and respiratory conditions in Sydney. Six days were identified as being clearly smoky. It was estimated that 14 premature deaths and 58 respiratory hospitalisations were attributable to these smoky days. This highlights the potential scale of the public health impacts when smoke affects a population of nearly 5 million people for several days.