Protecting first responders from increased bushfire risk

Due to a changing climate, more frequent and severe bushfires are being experienced across Australia.

A new Monash University study highlights the need for periodic health surveillance of workers and ongoing support for mental health conditions, particularly first responders dealing directly with bushfires.

The Monash Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health study, led by Associate Professor Janneke Berecki-Gisolf and Professor Karen Walker-Bone and published in Nature Scientific Reports, analysed Victoria-wide compensation claims by emergency responders from January 2005 to April 2023.

It found that exposure to extreme bushfires (such as the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009 and the Black Summer fires of 2019 and 2020) had associations with mental health disorders and head injuries among workers. Infections/parasites were also more associated with extreme bushfire-period claims, compared to something like wounds which was used as a control.

What were the study findings?

The research team specifically looked at compensation claims during the extreme bushfire periods in 2009 and 2019–20, compared to all other claims, adjusting for seasonality (summer).

Of the 44,164 included claims:

• 2.5% (1105) had recorded injury/disease onset dates within extreme bushfire periods.
• 26.4% (11,642) occurred in summer months.
• Over half of claims were made by police (52.4%), followed by ambulance officers/paramedics (27.2%) and firefighters (20.5%).
• Extreme bushfire period claims were associated with older workers.
   

The Black Saturday bushfires, which took place in February 2009 in Victoria, claimed 173 lives, devastated numerous homes and inflicted significant environmental damage. The subsequent Australian Black Summer bushfires, which took place over a decade later in November 2019 to February 2020, were an unparalleled series of bushfires with far-reaching consequences, including widespread destruction of natural and built environments, loss of human and animal life, and ecological repercussions. Nine firefighters died in the Black Summer bushfires.

The first-line response to bushfires is managed by emergency responders including firefighters (paid firefighters and volunteer and/or seasonal firefighters), defence personnel, paramedics and ambulance officers, police officers, and State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers. These emergency responders’ occupational exposure to bushfires has the potential to adversely affect their physical and psychological health immediately and in the long term, including psychological impacts (post-traumatic stress disorder, suicide), respiratory issues (lung function decline, airway dysfunction, increases in airway inflammation, lung cancer mortality), cardiovascular disease (hypertension, dyslipidaemia, arrhythmia, cardiovascular diseases mortality) and acute physical injuries, as well as dehydration.

This is the first study to look at the associations between periods of extreme bushfire events and injury/disease workers compensation claims made by emergency responders. The report’s authors recommend:

• further research including the wearing of portable monitors to track exposure to heat, air pollution, etc;
• a focus on pre-event worker mental health, improving safety strategies during the event, and better psychological aftercare immediately following the event and longer term, including a telehealth option; and
• a separate focus on older workers who may have chronic health conditions or have been exposed to multiple extreme bushfires — including pre-deployment medical assessment and regular physical and mental health surveillance in those over the age of 55.
   

Image credit: iStock.com/Julia Gomina