Five Years of Accurate PM Measurements Demonstrate the Value of Low-Cost PurpleAir Monitors in Areas Affected by Woodsmoke.

Low-cost optical sensors are used in many countries to monitor fine particulate (PM) air pollution, especially in cities and towns with large spatial and temporal variation due to woodsmoke pollution. Previous peer-reviewed research derived calibration equations for PurpleAir (PA) sensors by co-locating PA units at a government regulatory air pollution monitoring site in Armidale, NSW, Australia, a town where woodsmoke is the main source of PM pollution. The calibrations enabled the PA sensors to provide accurate estimates of PM that were almost identical to those from the NSW Government reference equipment and allowed the high levels of wintertime PM pollution and the substantial spatial and temporal variation from wood heaters to be quantified, as well as the estimated costs of premature mortality exceeding $10,000 per wood heater per year.

Wood heater smoke and mortality in the Australian Capital Territory: a rapid health impact assessment.

Objectives: To estimate the number of deaths and the cost of deaths attributable to wood heater smoke in the Australian Capital Territory.

Study Design: Rapid health impact assessment, based on fine particulate matter (PM ) data from three outdoor air pollution monitors and published exposure-response functions for natural cause mortality attributed to PM exposure.

Setting: Australian Capital Territory (population, 2021: 454 000), 2016-2018, 2021, and 2022 (2019 and 2020 excluded because of the impact of extreme bushfires on air quality).

The effects on mortality and the associated financial costs of wood heater pollution in a regional Australian city.

Objectives: To estimate the annual burden of mortality and the associated health costs attributable to air pollution from wood heaters in Armidale.

Design: Health impact assessment (excess annual mortality and financial costs) based upon atmospheric PM measurements.

Setting: Armidale, a regional Australian city (population, 24 504) with high levels of air pollution in winter caused by domestic wood heaters, 1 May 2018 - 30 April 2019.

Bicycle helmet wearing is associated with closer overtaking by drivers: A response to Olivier and Walter, 2013.

There is a body of research on how driver behaviour might change in response to bicyclists' appearance. In 2007, Walker published a study suggesting motorists drove closer on average when passing a bicyclist if the rider wore a helmet, potentially increasing the risk of a collision. Olivier and Walter re-analysed the same data in 2013 and claimed helmet wearing was not associated with close vehicle passing.

Safety in numbers in Australia: more walkers and bicyclists, safer walking and bicycling.

Issue Addressed: Overseas research shows that fatality and injury risks per cyclist and pedestrian are lower when there are more cyclists and pedestrians. Do Australian data follow the same exponential 'growth rule' where (Injuries)/(Amount of cycling) is proportional to ((Amount of cycling)-0.6)?

Method: Fatality and injury risks were compared using three datasets: 1) fatalities and amounts of cycling in Australian States in the 1980s; 2) fatality and injury rates over time in Western Australia as cycling levels increased; and 3) deaths, serious head injuries and other serious injuries to cyclists and pedestrians in Victoria, before and after the fall in cycling with the helmet law.

Air pollution in Australia: review of costs, sources and potential solutions.

Issue Addressed: Estimated health costs and principal sources of air pollution are reviewed, together with estimated costs of reducing pollution from major sources in Australia.

Method: Emissions data from the Australian National Pollutant Inventory were compared with published estimates of pollution costs and converted to the cost per kilogram of emissions. Costs per kg of emissions (and, for the two main sources of pollution, diesel vehicles and wood heaters, costs per heater and per vehicle) are relatively easy to understand, making it easier to compare health costs with costs of pollution-control strategies.