Air quality
EPA monitoring data has shown the effect of this summer’s devastating fires on the state’s air quality.
Smoke from fires and other sources of pollution raises the concentration of fine particles in the air, and can result in health problems, especially for children, older people and those living with respiratory diseases like asthma.
This graph shows spikes associated with smoke from the bushfires on Yorke Peninsula, Cudlee Creek, and Kangaroo Island, and even from those interstate, plotted against data from the previous five years.
These spikes represent several instances when concentrations of PM 2.5 particles exceeded the national standard of 25 micrograms/m3, and others where levels were not hazardous, but resulted in visible smoke haze across Adelaide and regional parts of the state.
