Is it time to leave? Many Sydneysiders are wondering whether they can survive summer in a city cloaked in smoke | p_hannam rachelclun
Sydney's seemingly endless brew of smoke and dust has young mother Louise Burke - an asthmatic since infancy - considering whether to find healthier air for herself and one-year-old child elsewhere.
"What's the point of living in a great city if you can't go outside?" she said. "But where can you go? It's going to get worse and worse around the world with climate change."Those living in NSW and much of inland Australia might be wondering the same thing - and not without reason. On a range of measures, many of the extreme conditions predicted by climate models appear to be playing out. Even if the warming planet produced by the build-up of greenhouse gases can't be blamed for all of the current brutal weather - including the poor air quality - these are likely portents of what is to come, scientists say.
Ultra-fine and fine particles - measuring up to 2.5 and 10 microns, respectively - can enter the bloodstream and lungs, potentially triggering a range of respiratory or cardiological conditions because of inflammation or coagulation of the blood.Heart attacks can follow as blood clots form in arteries, but the particles can also affect heart rhythm.
Professor Abramson cautioned that the starting point for Australian cities was mostly good air quality, and deaths from asthma, for instance, were relatively rare at "a few hundred" mostly elderly people a year. He predicts that "tragically some will die from this [pollution] event". COPD is less responsive to most medication than asthma so sufferers are much more likely to end up in emergency departments.
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