EXPERT REACTION: Dust storm asthma warning for SA

The current story in The Advertiser “Health alert issued as dust storm and high winds to hit Adelaide” is important and an excellent example of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, SA Health’s Chief Medical Officer and Chief Public Health Officer, and the media working together to forecast environmental conditions that may be a threat to people’s health and to communicate that message widely.

Much has been learned about the management of such events through investigations of the November 2016 Melbourne epidemic thunderstorm asthma event (e.g., Victorian Inspector-General for Emergency Management, The Lancet Planetary Health).

While today’s news story about the dust storm to hit Adelaide, and the thunderstorm asthma forecasting and response program in Victoria are positive signs of Australia’s increasing preparedness for acute environmental hazards, many Australians are still vulnerable to such acute events, with, for example, the monitoring of airborne allergens such as pollen and fungal spores inadequately funded, meaning we have much to learn about what people are breathing in even on a day to day basis, let alone during events such as the SA dust storm.

There is strong evidence to support that exposure to air pollution can cause adverse health outcomes including asthma and cardiovascular events. It is important to note that high winds induced-dust storms are a source of fine particulate matter (fPM) especially after a prolonged dry spell.

This fPM becomes extremely dangerous when combined with moisture and has the potential to exaggerate or precipitate existing respiratory and cardiac conditions. Therefore, care must be taken by people who have pre-existing allergies, such as hay fever, as small particles entering the lungs through the nose and can make people struggle to breathe even if they have never suffered asthma-like symptoms before.

It is advised that people with pre-existing asthma carry their puffers with them.