SCIENTISTS may struggle to study bushfire smoke's long term health effects due to gaps in Victoria's air quality monitoring, an expert has warned.
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Central Victoria is among the areas without a permanent air quality monitoring station.
An incident air quality monitoring system in Bendigo was not activated during periodically hazy conditions since January 6.
A number of health alerts have been issued for hazardous air in Victoria since devastating bushfires ripped through East Gippsland on New Year's Eve.
But an expert says satellite imagery and weather forecasts are providing accurate public health information to those in areas without monitoring.
Melbourne University Professor of Atmospheric Science Peter Rayner said a lack of monitoring would affect authorities' long term ability to monitor smoke effects on people's health.
Professor Rayner said so many factors interacted around the long term effects of bushfire smoke.
"We would like to know not just what the bushfire contribution is, but how it sits on top of all the other things people are going to be exposed to," he said.
"That make the research quite a lot harder if we don't have that information."
Australian Medical Association President Tony Bartone told the Bendigo Advertiser there was not enough evidence to indicate what the long term effects of smoke would be on people's health earlier this month.
Professor Rayner said scientists could monitor smoke from satellites to forecast where smoke would go and how bad it would get.
He said public health authorities had to trust forecasts when making decisions about public health warnings.
These were not perfect but pretty good, Professor Rayner said.
"So far we haven't had the case of really missing any event with these bushfires," he said.
"They've done a really impressive job of what to worry about when."
The Environment Protection Authority runs air quality monitoring across Victoria. Most permanent sites are in Melbourne and the LaTrobe Valley, with others at Wangaratta, Geelong and Point Cook.
The authority said incident air monitoring units would likely be deployed in response to a request from the agency responding to any incident, in the case of fire most likely the Country Fire Authority.
The EPA said it used weather forecasts, satellite information, information from the State Control Centre to create modelling.
It said all of Victoria was experiencing unprecedented air quality issues and the EPA was providing daily forecasts and a four day outlook to each weather district.
A Country Fire Authority spokesperson said the decision to activate incident air quality monitoring was made by the incident controller in consultation with the EPA.
"These decisions are based on a number of factors including the incident proximity to community, weather forecast, topography, type of materials burning, expected duration of event and visibility in local community," the spokesperson said.
"For an incident in or around Bendigo, this decision making process would apply."
Bendigo SES has an air quality monitor which can be deployed as required.
Professor Rayner urged anyone with sensitivity to smoke to take health warnings seriously.
If you are experiencing wheezing, chest tightness and difficulty breathing, call Triple Zero (000).
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