Media release

From: The University of New South Wales

With today being the first day of a dry and hot Australian summer, we have four experts available to comment on the future of bushfires. They can speak to what this means in terms of the bushfire science, what physical and mental health impacts need to be addressed, and what future urban design should consider to keep communities safer.

• Professor Jason Sharples, bushfire behaviour expert: “Unfortunately, the reality is that the best time to put extreme bushfires out is five years before they start."
• Dr Christine Cowie, environmental epidemiologist: “We know the longer someone endures smoke inhalation, the greater the risk of developing severe illness, even for healthy people.”
• Professor Kaarin Anstey, psychologist and cognitive ageing expert: "There is an urgent need for more longitudinal and experimental studies to understand the full extent of bushfire smoke’s effects on brain health.“
• Mr Benjamin Driver, architect and senior lecturer in urban development & design: "We do need more housing and a lot of it, but we can accommodate it in existing suburbs rather than building inefficient and distant new ones that create dangerous bush-urban interfaces."