CANBERRA, Dec. 22 - Smoke from wood heaters causes up to 63 deaths every year in Australia's capital, research has found. The research, which was published by the Australian National University (ANU) on Friday, found that smoke inhalation from wood-fired heaters kills between 11 and 63 people in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) annually.
According to the study, the estimated equivalent annual cost of the deaths caused by wood heaters is between 57 and 333 million Australian dollars (38.6 to 225.7 million U.S. dollars). Sotiris Vardoulakis, lead author of the research from ANU and the Director of the government-funded Healthy Environments and Lives (HEAL) National Research Network, said in a media release that wood heaters are a major source of air pollution in the ACT, surpassing road traffic and industry.
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Smoke produced by the heaters can exacerbate respiratory and cardiovascular diseases such as asthma, increasing the risk of premature death, he said. "These health conditions are aggravated during winters when the air stagnates due to the local topography, and the cold and polluted air gets trapped near the ground," Vardoulakis said. "In addition to air pollution, wood heaters also produce carbon dioxide, methane and black carbon, which all contribute to climate change."
The local government of the ACT, which comprises Australia's capital city of Canberra and its surrounding towns, in August announced a plan to phase out all wood heaters by 2045 after a report from the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment found there was no safe way to have them in homes.
To accelerate the phase-out, Vardoulakis called for the government to offer financial incentives or rebates to lower-income homeowners to encourage replacing wood heaters with lower-emission alternatives.The research was conducted in collaboration with the HEAL National Research Network and the Center for Safe Air at the University of Tasmania.
(Xinhua)
