The mortality burden attributable to wood heater smoke particulate matter (PM2.5) in Australia

Air pollution is the leading environmental risk factor for mortality worldwide. In Australia, residential wood heating is the single largest source of pollution in many regions of the country. Estimates around the world and in some limited locations across Australia have shown that the health burden attributable to wood heating PM2.5 is considerable, and that there is great potential to reduce this burden. Here, we aimed to calculate the mortality burden attributable to wood heating emissions (WHE)-related PM2.5 throughout Australia and estimate the potential health benefits of reducing WHE-related air pollution, by replacing wood heaters with cleaner heating technologies. In summary, we used a four-stage process to (1) compile a nationwide WHE inventory, (2) generate annual exposure estimates of WHE-PM2.5, (3) estimate the annual mortality burden attributable to wood heater use across Australia for the year 2015, and (4) assess the potential health benefits of replacing existing wood heaters with cleaner heating technologies. We estimated that population weighted WHE-PM2.5 exposure across Australia for 2015 ranged between 0.62 μg/m3 and 1.35 μg/m3, with differing exposures across State/Territories. We estimated a considerable mortality burden attributable to WHE-PM2.5 ranging between 558 (95 % CI, 364–738) and 1555 (95 % CI, 1180–1740) deaths annually, depending on the scenario assessed. We calculated that replacing 50 % of the current wood heater stock, with zero or lower emission technologies could produce relevant health benefits, of between $AUD 1.61 and $AUD 1.93 billion per year (303–364 attributable deaths). These findings provide a preliminary and likely conservative assessment of the health burden of wood heater smoke across Australia, and an estimation of the potential benefits from replacing the current wood heater stock with cleaner technologies. The results presented here underscore the magnitude of the health burden attributable to wood heating in Australia.