Abstract
Background: Emergency services working to protect communities from harm during wildfires aim to provide regular public advisories on the hazards from fire and smoke. However, there are few studies evaluating the success of public health communications regarding the management of smoke exposure. We explored the responses to smoke-related health advisories of people living in a severely smoke-affected region during extensive wildfires in Tasmania, Australia early in 2019. We also evaluated the acceptability of portable high efficiency particle air (HEPA) cleaners used in study participant's homes during the smoky period.Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 24 households in the Huon Valley region of Tasmania following a severe smoke episode. These households were initially recruited into a HEPA cleaner study. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed for common themes using an inductive framework approach.Results: Public health messaging during the 2019 wildfire event in Tasmania was widely shared and understood, with social media playing a central role. However, some participants expressed concerns about the timeliness and effectiveness of the recommended interventions, and some would have appreciated more detailed information about the health risks from smoke. Public messages and actions to protect households from wildfire threat were, at times, contradictory or dominated in coverage over the smoke messaging, and many participants were conflicted with the multiple public messages and action relating to the more serious perceived threat from the fire.Conclusions: Public messaging about smoke and health should continue to use multiple avenues of communication, with a focus on simple messages provided through social media. Messaging about the smoke hazard should be available from a trusted central source regarding all aspects of the wildfire emergency, with links to more detailed information including local air quality data alongside interpretation of the associated health risks.
Highlights
Changing global environmental conditions have increased the frequency, intensity and spread of wildfires with substantial implications for human health [1]
We evaluated the effectiveness of portable high efficiency particle air (HEPA) cleaners to improve residential indoor air quality during extreme episodes of air pollution
Residents from the Huon Valley were invited to join the study if [1] they were available for a 3 weeks period for continual indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring with intermittent use of a HEPA cleaner, [2] did not have household members who smoked as this would have increased the complexity of interpreting the indoor air quality measurements for the HEPA evaluation study, and [3] lived in parts of the valley that were not at high risk of direct attack from the wildfire front
Summary
Changing global environmental conditions have increased the frequency, intensity and spread of wildfires with substantial implications for human health [1]. Wildfire smoke contains large amounts of fine particulate matter which cause a wide range of health problems, from upper respiratory tract irritation to exacerbations of cardiac, respiratory and other chronic conditions [4,5,6] This leads to increased morbidity and mortality, and a significant economic burden to affected populations [7,8,9,10]. The messages are often promulgated through traditional and social media accounts managed by agencies They generally center on communicating who is at higher risk from smoke and specific actions they can take to reduce exposure to smoke, such as: staying indoors, reducing outdoor activities, the appropriate use of masks and air cleaners, relocation, or to manage health conditions affected by smoke, such as asthma [16,17,18]. We evaluated the acceptability of portable high efficiency particle air (HEPA) cleaners used in study participant’s homes during the smoky period
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